


Purple Syrup

by Colamiilk



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Biting, Giriko POV, Goretober 2019, Hypnotism, Kind of just weird all around, Loss of Control, M/M, Possession is used loosely here but it still fits, Purple syrup isn't a random name but I'm not going to waste everyone's time explaining it, Tiny bit of Angst, its dumb anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2020-11-28 08:02:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20963198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colamiilk/pseuds/Colamiilk
Summary: This was it, wasn’t it? 800 years of bullshit ended by a stupid kid. Getting ready to feel his head slice cleanly off and roll and bounce off his shoulders awkwardly his body bunched up in anticipation. The tension kept getting worse and worse as he waited… and waited.---Goretober 2019! - Day 8: Possession





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I swear to god every goretober there’s one prompt, one thats like, hey? Do you remember that really dark fetish you had when you were like 13? Yeah… I bet you thought you were over that… Well time to bring it back. Write it for me. Like FUCK. So... I had too much fun writing this, hope ya have fun reading it too.

“Fuck!” Giriko stumbled, falling over onto the cold dusty floor. This was it, wasn’t it? 800 years of bullshit ended by a stupid kid. Getting ready to feel his head slice cleanly off and roll and bounce off his shoulders awkwardly his body bunched up in anticipation. The tension kept getting worse and worse as he waited… and waited. This was taking too long. He knew time could slow down in pivotal moments but this was ridiculous. Daring to peek an eye open he was shocked to see Justin completely frozen, his eyes a darkening purple and his entire body wracking with sporadic shivers and twitches. What the fuck was happening?

Moving to get up Giriko saw Arachne appear from behind Justin, her eyes the same dark glowing purple. She approached them with heavy, but still somehow elegant steps. She unfolded her fan, and Justin fell like a rock. The way she looked at the brat’s body with such a haughty disgust made it seem like she was looking at something rotten and vile instead of just a dumbass. Giriko wasn’t paying too much attention to that though. He was too busy being completely awe struck by what had just happened. The sound off Justin’s heavy body slamming into the concrete was still echoing in his head.

“Pick him up Giriko, we’re going back.” Giriko’s throat felt dry, there was a weird weight on his shoulders, but nevertheless he stood up to pick Justin up. It felt more than weird to finally make contact with the kid’s skin. He wasn’t sure if he had ever managed to land enough of a hit on the brat to ever have felt this. He supposed that even if he had, Justin was so wrapped up in all the fabric of his clothes that Giriko wouldn’t of felt his skin anyway. Not unless he managed a precise hit on the brats face or hands. He was never all that good at precision. 

Giriko tugged at Justin hand a few more times, before realizing that there wasn’t anything that’d get Justin up right now. He wasn’t wounded, he was  _ out _ . Arachne had knocked him out cold. Wiping at his face with a well hidden groan Giriko knelt all the way down to lift Justin up and flip him over his shoulder. He wasn’t all that keen on lugging the brat back, but as he stood back up, Justin in tow, he was surprised to see how light the kid was. He was way too light honestly. It pissed him off. How the hell had he been having so much of a problem with someone as tiny as this? It seriously felt like someone could throw a beach ball at him and it’d knock him over. 

Turning back towards Arachne he paled to see her staring at him with a questioning and impatient brow, waiting for him to get going already. He moved to say something in awkward apology, but she turned on her heel before he had a chance, motioning for him to follow and stay quiet. Giriko grimaced and started to trail behind her. There was an atmosphere that screamed he was in trouble. She was undoubtedly disappointed in him for losing to Justin, well… almost losing. His face turned the slightest ashamed red and his face knotted up in anger. This fucking brat was so insufferable. How could he keep fucking Giriko up like this? Why was he so impossible to beat? 

A few more moments passed in silence, and Mosquito started to come into view, already having opened the car door to usher Arachne in. He had that normal annoying seriousness about him, but then he saw Justin. His eyes widened enough that it looked like they were going to pop out of his old head. Giriko would laugh if he wasn’t feeling the same way about all of this. What were they even doing here? What had Arachne done, and what did she want to have happen with the kid? He wanted to ask, but after the look he got he figured it wasn’t the time to push at it. Mosquito did it for him.

“My Lady, what is-? What are you doing? You surely don’t want to bring a Death Scythe back with us, who knows what could happen!” Arachne got into the car without so much as acknowledging Mosquito’s question. Giriko and Mosquito could only share a look for a brief moment before following to get in themselves. Mosquito shut the door Arachne got in before moving to get into the driver's seat himself. Giriko had a bit more of a problem. 

He went around to get in, but then noticed it wasn’t going to be that easy for him. He had a fucking kid on him he needed to somehow ram in there without hitting Arachne at all. Lifting Justin off his shoulder he ignored Mosquito’s glare to hurry up. It was more than awkward folding the brat into a weird curled up ball and holding him tight against his chest, but it let him squeeze the two of them into the car and slam the door. They were like fucking sardines in this side, and Justin’s feet were dangerously close to bumping into Arachne, but they fit. Giriko wished Mosquito’s car had a fucking trunk he could’ve dumped Justin into. This was uncomfortable and he had to stare straight into Justin’s lap unless he wanted to look at the other’s surprisingly serene sleeping face and shining blonde hair. 

The car jerked a bit as they started moving and Giriko felt his heart leap into his throat as Justin’s head rocked into his chest. This was too close. He had only been this close to Justin in combat when there wasn’t any time to think about anything but surviving. Right now he had far too much time to think about things. Far too much time to realize how much the brat smelled like roses and candle wax. How he had fucking little faint freckles that made him look even younger than he already was. How his tiny lips were rose bud red and wet with his heavy sleepy breaths. This was bullshit. This was what had almost killed him. The fucking brat on his lap almost killed him. He shouldn’t be noticing how pretty Justin was, he should be overcome with hatred and a burning desire to completely dismember him. 

“I know what I’m doing Mosquito. He isn’t a threat anymore, he’ll be helping us.” Both Giriko and Mosquito made a weird noise of shock when Arachne finally answered the question. Mosquito was too busy driving to look at their witch in shock, but Giriko wasn’t busy at all. He looked over at her so fast, with so much shock that Justin’s head got bent weirdly and fell onto his shoulder. The words were coming out of Giriko’s mouth before he could even consider if he wanted to say them. 

“What do you mean!?” Arachne turned back to look at him with an unimpressed stare and Giriko froze. He knew he wasn’t really supposed to be talking right now, but at the same time he fucking  _ needed  _ to know what the hell she meant by that. How the hell did she expect to get Justin’s help? She had heard him talk before, had seen him fight and probably had seen far far more of the kid before with her spiders. She had to know how devout he was, how impossible recruiting him would be. What the hell was she thinking?

“It would’ve been better for you just to kill him,” Giriko flinched and she sighed in disappointment before continuing on “but since that wasn’t an option here I hypnotised him. He won’t be useful in any fights as brainless and weak as he now, but he’ll have plenty of information for us.” The silence that fell over all of them with that was deafening. Giriko stared blankly into space for a bit. He didn’t know what to make of that. He looked down at Justin, the brat was still sound asleep, curled up the way Giriko had put him. There was something that felt gross about this situation. Giriko couldn’t put his finger on it. This was Justin, this was a war. Why the hell was he having any hesitations about this? The car jerked to a stop.

“I’m quite tired now, I’ll play with him later.” Arachne opened the car door herself, not even waiting for Mosquito to help her out. Giriko was in a state of complete shock. He watched Arachne get out and start back for her lair. It took a couple seconds to catch up and burst out the other side of the car, Justin still laying limply in his arms.

“Wait! What the hell am I supposed to do with him until then!?” Arachne looked back at him again, her expression still heavy with that annoyed disappointment. It burnt more at Giriko then he’d ever admit, but he couldn’t just let this go. He needed to know what the hell to do here. She couldn't just leave him with the body of her next… Giriko’s mouth felt sharp and dry, his heart bunched up weirdly. Justin was her next toy. 

“Whatever you want Giriko, I really couldn’t care less.” With that she turned away firmly, saying without words that she wouldn’t be answering anything else about this. Giriko stood there weirdly, watching as Arachne disappeared into the building, ushered in by a handful of Arachnophobia members. Mosquito got out, also processing what had happened and locking the car to head in himself. Giriko felt weird when he noticed that Mosquito was staring at Justin. He held the brat closer to his chest and moved to head in himself. 

This was stupid. All of this was stupid. Walking as fast as he could without drawing suspicion Giriko pushed and shoved past all the Arachnophobia members that welcomed him or tried to ask what had happened. A couple asked if he wanted them to take Justin off his hands, he might of kicked one of them hard enough in the ankle that they fell over, but he honestly wasn’t sure. He just wanted to get back to the fucking room he was staying. He wanted to be away from all of this. 

When he got back to his room and threw Justin onto the bed to slam the door shut, he was shocked at how unrelieved he felt. This was still horrible. He still felt everything painful and heavy. He was away from all the bullshit around this but… as he stared into the cold dark wood of his door he couldn’t ignore how much his chest hurt. The crushing pain of being watched, of knowing what he was doing wasn’t going away. Why wasn’t it going away? Turning around with a groan of exhaustion he figured out why.

Justin was sitting up, he had woken up from Giriko throwing him. Giriko’s throat felt sticky. Justin was just sitting there, perfectly still, no discernable expression on his face, warm purple eyes. It was like a fucking bullet to see. To realize. This wasn’t Justin. Justin wasn’t around anymore and he never would be again unless Arachne decided to release him. Giriko had been working for Arachne long enough to know she’d never do that. Justin was as good as dead. This was like looking at a doll made out of his corpse.

“H-Hey. Can you hear me in there?” Justin didn’t move, he just blinked slowly and stared at Giriko with eyes that were even emptier than they usually were. There were a couple seconds of silence, of Giriko pathetically holding on to the hope that Justin would respond to him. Of course there was nothing. Giriko’s heart felt as if it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper. He didn’t know why this was affecting him so much, but it really was. He walked over to his bed and sat down heavily besides Justin. 

He didn’t even look over at Justin. He didn’t want to see Justin anymore. He didn’t want to know Justin existed like this. He wished he had been able to kill the brat before now. He wished he could somehow undo this. Something stabbed through him with that. What the hell was he thinking? This was what Arachne wanted, why the hell would he want to ruin anything for Arachne? Looking painfully over to Justin he found his heart tear apart, pop open in a rush of hot bitter blood. 

“Don’t fucking look at me like that.” Justin was still just staring, however he heard the command somewhere in his hazy broken mind and moved to look away. Giriko caught his face and forced the scythe to keep looking at him. It hurt. It hurt to have Justin’s eyes on him. It hurt to feel the heavy metallic tasting guilt drip down his throat and pool heavily in his stomach, but the idea of Justin following his commands and looking away hurt worse. He kept holding Justin’s face with a weird firm gentleness, and brushed his thumbs over the others soft warm cheeks.

He got a bit of a reaction with that, the kid bunched up and shivered a bit, obviously unused to being touched like this. Somehow that made all of this feel worse. It made Giriko feel as if he had been punched so hard in the stomach that all the air in his body had been forced out in a horrid whoosh of air. He pet at Justin again and made a pained noise when Justin leaned into it this time, chasing after the affectionate movement. This felt wrong in a million different ways. Giriko couldn’t even start to list them all. He couldn’t even tell where one disgusting facet of this ended and the next one started. 

“You don’t remember me, do you?” Moving one of his hands up to run his fingers through Justin’s hair his hands hit the dumb little cap and he felt his organs knot up again. He didn’t want to… but he also needed to know. Grabbing the little hat he took it off and watched, waiting to see Justin explode. And waited. And waited. There was fucking nothing. Justin just sat there, his stupid purple eyes looking at him, waiting for instruction. He really wasn’t in there anymore. This wasn’t Justin, it obviously wasn’t, but the fact that Giriko could take off his weird religious baubles without him blinking really hammered it home. 

“It’s probably for the best that you don’t know who I am.” Giriko’s voice was starting to sound wet. He was having a hard time holding himself together. His chest was aching. His soul was aching. It was getting hard to breathe with the entire room feeling like it was filled with burning hot oil that got into his lungs with every breath. Justin wasn’t having any of the same problems, one of his little hands had moved onto Giriko’s thigh to help balance himself as he was pulled forward by his face. Giriko felt like he had been stabbed so many times that he was more bloody mauled flesh than a person. 

“If you remembered me you’d be trying to kill me.. You’d be screaming and disgusted that I got this close to you.” Justin’s rosy purple eyes were looking at him with such… such trust that it made Giriko nauseous. He wanted to see pale hateful blue again. Giriko wanted to see Justin’s bored eyes sharpen and turn into something annoyed but undeniably excited when he saw him one more time. One last time so he could appreciate it in the way he hadn’t thought to before. Angry tears started to drip down his cheeks and he brought Justin forward to meet their lips with a painful clash of teeth. 

Justin wasn’t moving, he wasn’t rejecting but it was obvious that this husk, this  _ puppet  _ couldn’t do anything without being controlled. He couldn’t react to Giriko sudden rush of feelings, he couldn’t even understand them. He wasn’t there. Wasn’t thinking or feeling. He was gone. Justin was gone and Giriko was just left with this fucking doll taunting him. Showing him what he could’ve fucking had if things had been different. 

Biting at Justin’s lips he looked for some kind of reaction, even if it was just a flinch of pain. He kept going, kept biting until his face was smeared with blood and Justin’s lips were so bruised and swollen and bitten that his teeth were starting to dye red. The brat still was just staring. Giriko grabbed Justin by his hair and threw him up the bed so he’d be lying down. Justin ended up landing limply, twisted up and face first in the pillows. It was pathetic, heartbreaking to see that the other didn’t even move to stop himself from suffocating. He had to wait for Giriko to flip him over. He couldn’t move at all by himself… he really was just a toy now. 

“Justin.” Giriko’s voice was so hoarse and pained that one would think he was fucking dying. He flipped Justin over and felt a new fresh wave of pain come over him when he saw Justin’s eyes were closed now. With the haunting purple covered, with his golden lashes kissing the tops of his cheeks, his lips busted up and red… he looked dead. He was so limp he looked dead. He was dead in a way but Giriko still wasn’t ready to deal with that. He was still trying to deal with the fact that he had apparently been in love with Justin this entire time. He was in love with Justin. That hit him like a fucking landslide. 

He didn’t want to be in love with Justin, especially not now. He didn’t want to realize all of this just in time to mourn. He thought he was done with that now that Arachne had finally woken up. He… he didn’t want this pain. He wanted Justin to wake up. He didn’t even care if the brat would try and behead him the second he realized where he was. He just wanted this pain to stop. He needed it to stop. He felt like he was dying. He had been so used to goodbyes and deaths that he had gone fucking numb these 800 years, but full, unnumbed pain of it was coming crashing back. He had let himself feel again when Arachne woke up, he had wanted to feel the excitement and chaos he had been waiting for all these years… now he was paying the price.

Tapping gently on the side of Justin’s face he held his breath. The brat’s eyes opened with fluttering gold lashes to reveal that horrible purple once again. Giriko couldn’t stop the weird choking noise he made in response. He knew they weren’t going to be blue. He knew that. It didn’t hurt any less though. Why had Arachne even done this? What information could a brat like Justin have? How were they even going to get it out of this husk? Giriko’s heart froze in his chest as he realized that Justin could still follow commands, could still answer questions. His lips felt dry. His chest squeezed tight. 

“Justin, say something, tell me what you're thinking.” His voice was raspy, but it was clear that Justin still understood. Like a fucking wind-up doll the brat started to move with the direction, he looked to the side, taking in the room and trying to figure out where he was. It felt wrong watching Justin survey things while looking for an answer. Giriko couldn’t decide if this weird tin soldier behavior was better or worse than Justin lying there pretty for him.

“I’m thinking… I’m scared.” Giriko couldn’t breathe. He literally couldn’t, he was trying to breathe and relax and come to terms with what he had just heard but he couldn’t. He was turning fucking blue and feeling like his lungs were going to implode. This was too much. That meant… That  _ proved  _ that Justin was still in there. Somewhere deep and locked away under all the hypnosis but  _ there _ . He was there, feeling and seeing the world through the body he could no longer control. 

And he was scared. 

Giriko couldn’t fucking blame him, it’d undoubtedly be horrific to not be able to move or talk while deep in the enemy’s base, under a fucking enemy, all while being completely unable to refuse any kind of command. Knowing that now, Giriko felt a little bit bad biting the brat’s lips into pieces, but he moved past it fast enough. He was too busy being fucking thrilled with this revelation to get bogged down by any kind of bad feeling. 

“Tell me what you want right now.” Justin’s eyes were still purple, he was still stiff and motionless except for the occasional reaction or twitch in response to commands. It was pissing Giriko off. He knew it wasn’t Justin’s fault but he just fucking wanted the brat back already. He wanted angry blue eyed Justin. He didn’t even care that the second Justin woke up he’d be more than just angry and would probably never forgive him, because he would be himself again, and that’s really all that mattered anymore. He got his wish slightly granted when Justin’s purple eyes got a little bit wet and he responded to the command with a small strained voice. Showing the tiniest bit of his own, genuine emotions.

“I want to go home.” Giriko took such a heavy intake of air he surprised himself. He still took another much too deep breath though. He needed to. He had to keep himself calm here. He couldn’t go off and do something stupid no matter how much Justin’s tiny little voice ripped into his heart. Rubbing his face Giriko leaned back to collect himself. Thank fucking christ Justin couldn’t talk or move without being told to because he really needed a fucking minute to right all his thoughts here. This was seriously a lot. 

Finally relaxing from all the ripping horrible tension of thinking Justin had died Giriko moved to sit down heavily from where he had been kneeling over the brat. This way his legs were hanging off the bed and he’d have to twist himself slightly to look down at Justin, but it was still far more comfortable. Rubbing his eyes one last time he steeled himself to open them back up and look down at Justin’s doll like form again. The brat didn’t look scared under all the heavy layers of hypnosis and purple glowing eyes, but Giriko knew he was. He had to say something here. 

“Trust me when I say you're far safer here than you would be back home.” The chances of Justin trusting that were slim to none, but Giriko didn’t know what else to say. He wasn’t even pulling stuff out of his ass here anyway, he had a damn good feeling if Justin ran back to Lord Death sobbing about how he was hypnotized they’d slaughter him without mercy. They’d say some bullshit about how they were scared that he was still somehow under their influence or infected by the madness and then kill him like he was an animal and not just a crying boy looking for their help. 

Giriko didn’t even notice he had grabbed onto Justin’s side protectively and was squeezing him far too possessively with the thought of Lord Death killing him. At least he didn’t notice until Justin’s voice cracked to life again, wet and sad, with a tiny, resolute,  _ heartbreaking  _ “Ok.”

The weight of that and the realization of what he had just done hit Giriko like a fucking 2X4. He had fucking forgot that Justin had to follow his commands right now. He hadn’t fucking realized that ‘trust me’ could even be taken as a command. He… He had just rewritten a part of Justin’s mind. He had done that because he was a fucking moron who wasn’t thinking about how much fucking control he had over Justin right now. He could do anything to Justin, Arachne could do anything to Justin… the brat was so hopelessly vulnerable here and Giriko didn’t fucking know what to do. 

“Tell me what you want from me Justin, something I can actually do for you.” Justin had to fucking know that Giriko couldn’t bring him home or release him or anything else like that. He had to know that. Giriko could only hope he’d come to terms with that and ask for something else. Something Giriko could do to make him feel better, to make up for just a little bit of this horrible situation. Justin sat silent. A minute passed with absolutely nothing and Giriko felt his heart fall all the way to hell. He should’ve been expecting this, he should’ve known-

“Hold me.” Giriko blinked. Completely shell shocked by the firm voice that chirped out of the kid. He looked down at Justin, stupidly expecting to see some kind of expression shift or movement even though he fucking knew the brat couldn’t do that. There was another weird break of silence. Giriko swallowed thickly, painfully and moved to pick Justin up again. The kid was easy to hold, light and limp as he was, but it felt wrong. It felt wrong to touch Justin while he couldn’t move.

“Uh… can I somehow? Uh, move for me Justin.” Justin’s foot twitched weirdly at that and Giriko felt his skin light on fire. There was a weird mixture of excitement and fear in the air, he had no idea what Justin was going to do once he managed to move again, he might try and kill him for all he knew. Justin’s fingers curled up next and his back arched. He was definitely getting control back. Giriko could only hold his breath and keep the other wrapped up warm and tight in his arms. Justin bent weirdly a few more times before shakily reaching his hands up for Giriko’s face to connect their lips. 

Giriko didn’t know what to do, just like how Justin had been still and unmoving during their first kiss he took that role this time. He had no idea what was going on, no clue how to process this. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea of Justin liking him. It was too unbelievable. This had to be something with the hypnosis. Suddenly feeling very gross Giriko pulled Justin away, his stomach hurting when he saw empty purple stare back. There was no fucking way to tell what Justin was thinking, what he was feeling, what was the hypnosis and what was him. They needed to get away from this situation, at least for right now. It needed to wait until Giriko had more of this figured out. Standing up he put out his hand for Justin.

“Hey, come with me.” Justin’s hand slotted into his own immediately, unable to hesitate even if he wanted to. Giriko tried to ignore the sick feeling that gave him. Tugging Justin up he moved towards the door without a moment's hesitation. He was trying to run away from what had just happened, to ignore it and pretend everything was normal even though it really really wasn’t. Justin didn’t fight it, but he also couldn’t. His expression was the same it had been this entire time, empty and vacant. 

Everything felt sticky, sickly. Justin’s eyes were boring into him. The brat was reacting in there, judging Giriko’s actions and not being able to express those thoughts at all. That was a horrible thing to know. He kind of wanted to sit Justin down somewhere and just leave. He wanted a break from all of this but he also knew leaving Justin alone like this was a bad idea. His hand hesitated over the door knob.

“What am I supposed to do here?” He didn’t really mean to say it out loud but he felt Justin’s hand twitch ever so slightly under his own. It was a weird, almost scary movement that made Giriko’s heart leap into his throat before he turned around painfully slow. He didn’t want to see the expression waiting for him, he already knew what it was. 

“She said whatever you want, right?” Justin’s voice was mostly monotone under all the hypnosis but there was a hint of something dangerous under all of that. The words sounded heavy like medicated syrup that made you want to throw up, it sounded accusatory, disgusted, scared,  _ relenting _ . Giriko could feel himself sweating bullets, each pore in his skin stretching around a thick drop of salty water.

“Yeah.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why my chapters have gotten so short lately? What's going on... have I just been doing really short plot points or did I like lose my spark? Ok anyway, I've had like 2-3 people want this to be continued now so, heres another chapter, nothing big or amazing but hopefully a bit of fun -v-);;

The heavy warmth of Justin’s hand in his own felt punishing, like an unignorable reminder of what was happening here. Giriko could feel his heart beating out of his chest as he stared holes into the old wooden door. It was pretty established at this point that there wasn’t anything he could really do to make this  _ better _ , but really all he was worried about was not making it  _ worse _ . He could already tell it would be way too easy to make this worse.

Clenching his hand around the scuffed golden knob Giriko threw the door open, tightening his grip on Justin’s hand with a vengeance, as if there was any possible way for the brat to slip away. Justin followed him perfectly without any sort of hesitation or accidental straying, he walked in perfect tune to the point that Giriko almost wanted him to be struggling just so they wouldn’t look so much like a couple. Well, he supposed they didn’t actually look like that because no couple looked as uncomfortable as Giriko did or as dead as Justin did. Still, it felt weird enough that he was really interested in getting to their destination.

Speaking of… where was he even going? He had really just wanted to get out of that room, to get Justin to cut out whatever that was. He didn’t need more confusing shit right now, not until he at least figured out what the fuck Arachne had actually done here. Was he just on stand-by and completely aware of everything but unable to move, or was there something fucking around with his mind in there? He knew Arachne was capable of both and right now would be a really good time to know how to tell them apart. 

Stopping dead in the hall Justin stopped perfectly in time with him and looked up with his fucking terrifying glassy eyes, tilting his head in question. Just that simple movement made a weird strained gurgle of discomfort come out of Giriko. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like not knowing what Justin could actually do here. He seemed to only move when Giriko was least expecting it, and never by much at all. Did it take a lot of effort? Was he just so incredibly annoyed with Giriko right now that he had managed to move in a way that demanded an answer? There really wasn’t any telling. 

“We… We’re going to get drinks.” There was a pretty high chance that Justin didn’t drink, and would 100% be being forced into drinking if Giriko told him to while they were down where Arachne kept the liquor… but Giriko wasn’t all that interested in having Justin drink anyway,  _ he  _ wanted a drink. He wanted to get his mind off this shit for a second and since the scythe was pretty much attached to him for the time being he was coming with. Justin didn’t give any kind of reaction and followed diligently when Giriko started back up towards the stairs. 

It wasn’t until they started down the staircase to the lower floors that he started to feel any sort of tug back from Justin. It was surprising enough that he looked back to see why they had slowed down, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting but it very decidedly wasn’t the scythe holding his coat up to make sure it didn’t get caught up and trip him. Giriko actually stopped cold in shock, making Justin, who had been staring at his feet trying not to trip but very committed to matching the enchanter’s pace, stop as well. The eye contact they made was awkward, mostly because there was no reaction in Justin’s eyes. 

“You-” Giriko’s voice was hoarse and breathless, his chest felt like it was running in overdrive and his face was starting to burn the way it did after he drank too much. He felt the slightest bit tipsy but he wasn’t drunk at all. He was having a hard time with this, having issues processing what was happening here and what to do. His throat felt dry as he cracked his lips open to ask Justin something,  _ anything _ , just so he could hear the brat’s voice again. 

“Giriko. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” The rough old voice was absolutely not the voice he was looking to soothe his red hot skin. It made Giriko’s shoulders bunch up and his eyebrows knot together painfully. He turned around with an awful snarling glare and pulled Justin down the last few stairs, closer to him, breaking their hands apart so he could curl a protective arm around the blonde. Mosquito looked less than amused, disappointed. As if his disappointment meant jack shit to Giriko. 

“Arachne called for you two, she’s ready to get what she needs from the child.” Mosquito’s words hit like a freight train. Right, there was a reason Justin was here like this… Arachne was undoubtedly going to do something to him, and maybe even kill him once she had what she wanted. A cold stone fell all the way down Giriko’s throat and into his stomach like a fucking bomb. He swallowed back the icy cold tracks it had made on it's way down and tightened his arms around Justin the slightest bit. 

“I thought she said she was tired, it's been like 2 hours. Don’t lie to me you fucking old man.” The pitious look Mosquito gave him was so condensing that Giriko had to stop himself from biting the old fart’s wrinkly head off. Mosquito decided he was really in the mood to push his luck because he only sighed loud and disappointed before looking past Giriko entirely and towards Justin. Giriko felt his entire body light up in defense, ready to actually fight.

“Justin-” Giriko covered Justin’s eyes so fast that he didn’t even realize why he was doing it until a few seconds after when he was reminded Justin only read lips and already wouldn’t be able to hear whatever Mosquito was going to say. Mosquito blinked in shock, processing what happened before looking back over at Giriko with an impatient raised brow and a barely held back anger. Giriko paid it no mind.

“Don’t fucking tell him what to do.” Justin wasn’t moving at all, which made sense considering he probably couldn’t, but his breathing was heavier than it had been and his heartbeat had sped up substantially. Giriko felt his own heart twist up painfully feeling how scared Justin was under his arms right now, undoubtedly thinking about what was being discussed around him and what Arachne was going to do. 

“Fine I won’t, but Arachne most certainly will.” Gritting his teeth Giriko watched as Mosquito turned on his heel and left, knowing Giriko wasn’t going to disobey an order from Arachne and was going to head there no matter what. Which he wasn’t wrong about… but he probably thought Giriko would be in a lot more of a rush than he was. Moving his hand slowly off of Justin’s eyes he let his fingers gingerly tilt the scythe’s chin to look over at him.

“Bit of a change of plans you dumb baby of a scythe, we’re gonna go see Arachne.” Justin’s eyes were wide as saucers, the slightest bit of emotion shining from deep inside of them, his knees knocking together at the idea of facing a witch while he was like this. Giriko pulled at his hand, shocked to see Justin actually stayed still and refused to move forward. An acidic painful sludge built up in his throat as he realized he was going to have to force the scythe into this. 

“Come on, it’s not going to be that bad.” Giriko could  _ feel  _ how unconvincing he was, he wasn’t even convincing himself this would be fine. Justin obviously didn’t buy it and impressively managed to plant his feet even further into the ground,  _ refusing  _ to let Giriko or the hypnosis move him. Giriko hesitantly let go of the scythe’s hand, waiting a second to see if Justin would just bolt. He didn’t, still not able to manage that much, and Giriko felt his stomach turn. He was really going to have to do this. If Justin couldn’t run he’d have no excuse, no way to say Justin got away. 

Picking Justin up he felt something stab through his heart when he heard the tiniest scared whimper brush against his ear. There wasn’t any getting around this, but it didn’t change the fact that he felt like he was doing something horrible as he got the terrified and stiff scythe settled on his arms. He wanted to just keep saying it was going to be fine, to reassure Justin that everything was going to be ok… but he really couldn’t bring himself to do it. It’d probably only make the kid more scared to hear how unsure of everything he was too. 

The best thing to do was just to go and get it over with. Each step forward was propelled by that thought. Once they got there whatever happened would happen and it’d be done with. There wouldn’t be anymore fear once they were there. Giriko wasn’t running, not even rushing, but he was going quicker than a person balancing another person on their arms should’ve. He needed this over with, it felt like his heart was going to straight up fall out it was going so fast. Justin seemed to be having similar problems, probably even worse than Giriko’s own, and was curling into him, hiding from whatever was coming.

When they finally came into view of Arachne’s room and Giriko moved to put Justin down the scythe started to cling horribly, refusing to let go of Giriko and be forced to face whatever was waiting for him. Giriko actually started to sweat trying to pull the brat off, growing annoyed with how amazingly hard Justin was holding on. Was Arachne fucking with him? Was  _ Justin  _ fucking with him? How was he able to hold on this hard under hypnosis? Was he that powerful? Giriko knew the kid was a Death Scythe but for him to be fighting so intensely while under Arachne’s influence was insane. 

“Get off of me Justin! It’s going to be fine just-!” Trying to pry the brat off of him he was shocked to feel Justin to go completely limp in his arms for a second before perking back up and wiggling to get down. It was such a sudden change that Giriko just sat there for a second before setting the writhing mess down and letting him skitter off to the door without even giving himself a chance to fix his messed up cross and cloak. Giriko watched blankly, trying to catch up to whatever the fuck was going on.

Justin didn’t wait for him, and opened the door despite Giriko reaching out to stop him. What was going on? Why was the brat suddenly so ready for this? He had just been trying to fucking become one with Giriko in an attempt to hide from Arachne and now he was just walking straight inside without any fear. Giriko felt a new fear pierce through him. Had Arachne lost control? Was Justin going to kill her? What was happening? Giriko could feel his mind working in overtime as Arachne came into view and he opened his mouth to shout  _ something,  _ to look for some kind of answer. 

“Ah, Justin you’re awake… come here.” All the words died in Giriko’s throat as the scythe walked over and fell to his knees like a rock, letting Arachne turn slowly around on her chaise and dance her fingers across his face, feeling the soft skin of her newest weapon. All at once it clicked in Giriko’s mind. She had heard them out there and was now actively using her hypnosis to get what she wanted. Justin was completely under her control right now, he couldn’t so much as blink without her go ahead. Giriko tried to ignore how that settled on his shoulders like disgusting tar and shifted his weight uncomfortably as he got ready to watch whatever was about to happen. 

“What a pretty purple your eyes are, they suits you well my little guillotine.” Arachne sounded so unbelievably pleased with the very same thing that had just been haunting him that it made him a bit sick. He always felt so perfectly in tune with Arachne but this was… he was having a hard time dealing with this. He wanted to look away more than anything when Arachne’s eyes started to glow a bright purple of their own, but he also couldn’t. Whatever was going to happen here he  _ needed  _ to at least see. She was certainly doing more than keeping the brat still right now… but Giriko didn’t dare ask what. He wasn’t sure he’d even want to know what exactly was happening. He tried to ignore how much of a coward that made him. 

Arachne thumbed out Justin’s headphones and hummed at how the scythe twitched, amused at how much that had to have affected him. When she leaned back to look at Justin in full, there was nothing but satisfaction in her eyes. She looked more than pleased to have the scythe in front of her, she must have found something playing with him… Giriko felt his entire body stiffen up as she laughed softly and rubbed her thumb gently under one of his eyes. 

“Lord Death  _ really  _ should’ve put more love into you… you're something so devout and strong he was a fool to not hold on tighter. He wasted you, didn’t even let you grow to your full potential.” Arachne’s fingers trailed down Justin’s neck and her nails caught onto his cross. Giriko watched with bated breath as she pinched the cross between her nails- careful to not let it touch her skin, and pulled it off over Justin’s head. Her hand clawed around it with a vengeance, the tips of her nails holding it up so she wouldn’t have to make contact with the vile thing as she burnt it into nothingness. Justin didn’t even move as the ash blew by him with the gentle breeze of Arachne’s sigh, it was obvious he couldn’t. 

“Lets see if he realizes that.” Wrapping her fingers tight around the scythe’s headphones as if she was trying to strangle the poor things she ripped them out of the front of his cloak and threw them off to the side to be picked up by a servant later. All the blood from Giriko’s face had drained out as he looked at Justin, perfectly still and unmoving just like he had been… but now stripped of the things that really made him who he was. If it weren’t for his coat and the fact that Giriko had just watched everything get torn off the brat, he wondered if he’d even be recognizable as Justin anymore. Those headphones were a part of him, and so was his cross to an extent… 

“Giriko, I could tell you were having fun back there… would you like to be in charge of him for now?” Justin’s head moved tiredly around to look at him, dead eyes peering into his soul, filling him with an uncharacteristic guilt, reminding him he was part of the reason the scythe looked like this now. The frog that formed in his throat with Justin’s steady eye contact was almost impossible to swallow down, Arachne took that as hesitation. 

“We could always get someone else but I think he’s taken a liking to you… I think you’re the one that could keep him in the best condition for me.” Arachne bent Justin’s head back towards her and was tilting it around, looking at every centimeter of him and examining his ‘quality’. Giriko had seen her do this once before, but only with weapons that really caught her interest. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised that Justin had excited her, he was an old, outdated, almost extinct weapon in, as far as Giriko could tell, perfect condition. It didn’t take a genius to put together what she was thinking here, he felt fucking stupid for not realizing where this was heading from the start. 

“Yeah I’ll take care of him.” Arachne looked up at him with a raised brow, searching him and making sure he was committed to this job. It was clear now that she had really gotten a close look at Justin with her collector’s eye, she was inclined to keep him as intact as possible. Giriko knew her well enough to know she was more than pleased to have found a living specimen of her dying out stationary class fall into her lap so perfectly. After all, catalogs and reports of her experiments and successes were one thing, to have a living sample was another thing altogether.

“Then I’m trusting you with him Giriko, I know you’ll make me proud.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Noah is the collector person but y'know this anime-verse and also there wouldn't be the weird tension with Giriko and Arachne and just... go with it ok? It makes sense to me anyway isn't it totally possible that the mother of weapons would be weird about that? Especially for a weapon class that was going extinct? Like I feel like she'd want to rather 'protect' the weapon class or immortalize it somehow idk... don't listen to my madness.


	3. Excitement and Hesitation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is kinda boring, more of a transition chapter than anything else, but with the overwhelming requests to continue this (only like 4 but thats a lot for me in this dead fandom tbh) so hopefully its still interesting and I can get more into the meat of it going forward.

It was hard to tell if Justin was traumatized from that or if he was still just so deep under the hypnosis that he was stumbling from every turn that Giriko took. Honestly, it was probably a mixture of both, and that was really all that was keeping Giriko from blowing up when they turned another corner and Justin ran straight into him for the 3rd time in a row. The brat was all out of sorts, so confused and lost that even he couldn’t work up any real anger without feeling bad. 

When they finally made it back and he managed to shove Justin into his room he found a sudden unignorable exhaustion fall over him. He was  _ so done _ , this entire day had been ridiculous and he was more than ready to just fall face down and go to sleep. The call of his new mattress that wasn’t a million fucking years old and lumpy like his one in Loew was alluring… but there was just one thing. He had to figure out what the hell he was going to do with Justin here. 

He didn’t have a spare bed so the brat was going to be sleeping with him (he was way too nervous to find another place for Justin and have the kid be that far away from him, there was a weird fear something would happen as soon as he got out of eye sight.) but… Giriko was more wondering what he was going to do about Justin’s muddy, battle worn uniform… he wasn’t too into the idea of Justin wearing his clothes, or at least really didn’t want to be into the idea… but it wasn’t like he had anything lying around for an unplanned guest. 

Grimacing he looked down at the brat with the realization that there really wasn’t much of a choice of what was next unless he wanted to sleep with mud. Justin seemed entirely unaware, having no clue of what was coming… Giriko almost wanted to feel bad for him, but he was too busy feeling bad for himself. This was going to fucking suck. He didn’t want to undress the brat like some kind of toddler who couldn’t dress themselves but the idea of telling Justin to undress himself and then knowing the brat was changing behind him or even worse right in front of him while he had to just sit there and think about everything sounded a million times worse… so… 

“Put your arms out.” Immediately Justin’s arms went out, springing up without hesitation in a way that made Giriko’s stomach turn. God, he never realized before how much he didn’t like having control over another person. This was too much responsibility. Too much work in all honesty. Grumbling to himself about it he went to start in on Justin’s coat, trying to get this done as soon as possible, almost immediately he ran into an issue. 

There was some weird layering going on and he had to start with the weird cloak part first. Groping around Justin’s chest for some kind of zipper or button or tie that kept it on he felt his temper rise. What the fuck even was this stupid piece of fabric for? It seemed to just make life harder! Justin couldn’t lift his arms up very far with how it was stitched around his shoulders like a fucking dumb pillowcase. Giriko’s temper was never all that patient and he gave up soon enough, just ripping the dumb thing over the blondes head and throwing it into the corner with a fury. One piece of this shit down.

Moving to the million and one buttons the kid had holding his coat shut Giriko wanted to just melt into the floor and leave Justin standing here all night because what the fuck, did he go through this effort everyday? Swearing under his breath Giriko fumbled with enough of them that it got loose enough to fall down around his ankles… good enough. He lifted the kid up under his shoulders and kicked the thing off towards the other piece of fabric. There was still a fair amount left on the kid…

“You wear a lot of fucking clothes, god, you could hide an elephant in all of this.” Justin made a small noise of annoyance as Giriko finally managed to yank off the brat’s undershirt and expose his soft pale skin, peppered with sporadic beauty marks that made stray constellations. Giriko’s throat knotted up horribly, his anger flooding out and being replaced with a weird sort of self restraint. Justin was tearing up, twitching with the desire to hide himself. He was so amazingly unmarred for a weapon, especially such a high class one, the scars he did have were so thin and sliver that Giriko didn’t even notice them at first. He supposed thats what happened when a weapon was this young, he probably hadn’t had a chance to get all that beaten up yet. 

By the time he untangled Justin out of  _ all  _ of his clothes (all that was left was really just his pants at this point) and he was left in nothing but his underwear the scythe was on the edge of blubbering, obviously freaking out about being in this situation. Giriko was way too tired to care, he found an old T-shirt and shoved it over the scythe without so much as a word, sighing in relief when the small crying noises that were leaking past the hypnosis stopped. All of this was going to be such a headache, he really hoped tomorrow Arachne would have an actual plan as to what she wanted to do here so he wouldn’t have to do everything for the brat like this. It wasn’t any fun for either of them. 

Grumbling he kicked all of Justin’s old clothes more directly into his pre chosen corner somewhere and looked down at the other, shocked at how different he looked outside of all that. He looked like any other kid, big teary eyes and soft bright hair. Giriko’s mouth pulled down in distress as he realized Justin’s misleading innocence was even worse outside of his uniform. He looked more like a lost kitten than a Reaper’s weapon who had just been forcibly stopped from killing witches for their souls. 

As he picked Justin up to maneuver them both into bed his grimace pulled down further as he felt Justin’s skin against his own. That stiff heavy uniform had been blocking any direct contact between them, that was a distant luxury now. He could feel Justin’s loud frightened heartbeat pound against his own, the brat’s skin was cold except for the flushed places where his blood was rushing through in it's panic, and he was so ridiculously  _ soft _ . A weapon wasn’t supposed to be this comforting to hold, what the fuck even was this? Who made Justin? Giriko wanted to have some fucking words with them. It was seriously like the made the perfect fucking doll but then decided that they wanted a dangerous psychotic mess inside and made him fucking insane with their weird ass reilgion. 

Justin made a small pathetic noise as he got them situated under the covers, holding the scythe tight against his chest and letting the other curl into him. From the awkward way Justin was breathing Giriko was pretty sure the scythe was a step away from bursting out into tears, scared and upset to be this far from home… he really was just a kid under all that bravado… Giriko could only groan in an exhausted annoyance and hold the other closer, hoping the contact would make things better rather than worse. There was no way he was going to get any sleep with Justin crying… 

Actually, scratch that, there was no way he was going to get any sleep at all because Justin’s bare legs had decided to move down to tangle into Giriko’s own, making even more skin to skin contact and pressing their stomachs and crotches together in a way that Giriko was  _ begging  _ wouldn’t make him hard. Even Justin’s hands were knotted up in the front of Giriko’s shirt, kneading softly at the enchanter’s chest in an obscenely cute way as the brat tried to distract himself or get comfortable or whatever. 

At this point Giriko was shocked he wasn’t the one crying… he was so close to Justin he could touch the brat however he wanted, he could run his hands up the kid’s waist and bite at his soft little lips, the little bastard was even rubbing up against him as if he was asking for it… it was infuriating. Giriko wasn’t going to fuck someone who couldn’t say no and was already literally crying on him but come  _ on _ , this shit wasn’t fair at all. Why did Justin have to be so fucking handsy? Why wasn’t he as staunch and stand offish as he always seemed? Was he really that scared down there? That desperate to find some type of comfort? 

Giriko supposed the brat just had his entire life torn away from him, right down to his clothes and his ever present headphones, but somehow he was expecting Justin to have been able to handle this better. He could only imagine what this would be like without the sedating effects of the hypnosis… sighing Giriko found his patience again and rested his lips against the crown of the scythe’s head with a gentle hum. Justin’s horribly raspy breathing actually paused for a second with that, the soft noise somehow calming him down, maybe reminding him of music or something of the like. Experimentally Giriko hummed again. 

Justin’s stiff twitchy body relaxed slightly, cautiously, ready to tense back up in a moment's notice if need be. A horrible frown pulled down at Giriko’s face before the temptation of actually getting some sleep became too much for him to ignore and he started to hum again, some old tune that he had heard somewhere but definitely couldn’t name. Justin seemed hesitant at first, but after a few awkward twitches he began to relax. Sinking deeper into the bed and into Giriko’s arm with every note. It was cute, as annoying as it was, and Giriko watched through one sneakily opened eye as Justin started to fall asleep despite his better judgement. 

It was pathetic how easy it was to get the other to stop freaking out and go the fuck to sleep, but hell if he was going to complain. Justin was blissfully quiet and limp now, letting Giriko just fucking breathe for a second, not having to worry what those blank eyes were thinking about. This was really a mess. He couldn’t imagine Arachne’s thought process here, what did she think was going to happen? Did she think about the details at all? Probably not to be fair but damn. Giriko was really having to pay the price of that oversight right now. 

Glancing down Giriko felt a rock lodge in his throat as he saw Justin’s soft gold lashes and warm pink lips brushing right up against his collar bone. They were so close, Justin was trusting him to be this close. Well. That wasn’t entirely true, Justin didn’t have a choice here, but he was relaxing while this close. Which was an amazement of itself by Giriko’s standards. He could’ve never imagined Death’s brat to be sleeping against his chest, practically kissing his collarbone. 

If it weren’t for the fact he knew Death didn’t give a fuck about his weapons he could imagine how scandalized the god would be knowing one of his loyal children had let himself find warmth in comfort in one of his oldest enemies. Snickering under his breath Giriko smiled, maybe this wasn’t the  _ worst  _ thing. He could get this to work, with the hypnosis in place Justin wasn’t all that hard to handle. Arachne was truly amazing, turning a Death Scythe into a little toy doll with just a bit of her magic… 

It was kind of gross but also… Giriko couldn’t help but be excited with the idea of…

What?

What was he even looking for here? What did he want from Justin? He found that he didn’t really have an answer. There was an excitement having the brat in his arms, the shared body warmth penetrating all the down to his soul… but he couldn’t place any real desire to any of this, nothing he really wanted to do now that he was finally here. Readjusting himself Justin made a tiny whine at being moved around before cuddling back in with an annoyed huff.

This was going to be a rather unexpected hurdle wasn’t it?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter!? Already!? Yeah... sorry... my area is shutting down everything bc of corona virus and i'm stuck at home with nothing to do but write :( This chapter hurt my heart a little to write pls enjoy <3

There was a moment, a brief beautiful second when Giriko woke up. Everything felt right in the world, his darkened room was warmer than usual but not as blisteringly hot as it got in Loew with his blaring kilns, everything felt great. He was with Arachne again, ready to take on Death for real this time and win. Everything was finally going his way after nil millennia of work…

And then he felt a weird cold weight on his bicep, a slightly wet weight.

He wouldn’t admit under any circumstances how much that fucking scared him, how he thought it was some kind of slug or weird animal that had broken in and was now crawling up his arm, how he almost fell out of a bed with a screech trying to slap it off of him. Luckily he didn’t have to admit it because right when his hand went down to mercilessly swat it off of him his hand froze centimeters before Justin’s sleeping face. Justin who most certainly wasn’t a slug and was instead just an inhumanly cold drooling kid that almost got slapped  _ hard _ as a wake up call. 

There was an overwhelming sense of relief that came immediately after that, both because there wasn’t anything gross on him but also because he would’ve felt bad slapping the kid senseless for just lying there. However once that moment of relief passed he was forced to remember what had happened yesterday. That he now had a hypnotized bloodthirsty child scythe to take care of… with an aggravated and pained groan he fell back into the covers. 

God… in the blissful night’s sleep he had he completely forgot about this… he had been happily unaware of the brat in his arms. Looking down with a nasty glare he felt it disappear entirely and his throat knot up when he saw Justin’s wet lashes and pained face. It looked like the other was having a nightmare, trying to hide away from whatever was haunting him in his dreams. He looked so hopelessly pathetic it hurt. Giriko grumbled for a bit before finally relenting and moving to wake the other up.

“Hey, hey Justin.” There was absolutely nothing, no kind of reaction at all, not even a twitch in acknowledgement. Giriko grumbled even more, of course the kid was a heavy sleeper, he couldn’t make anything easy could he? Always had to be the biggest pain in the ass possible, could never just- reaching towards the other’s shoulder he moved to shake the other awake, he only barely made contact before Justin’s eyes shot open. The scythe looked murderous, ready to fight, to draw blood, his eyes icy blue before a sharp purple swirled in around them and turned his expression hazy and lax once again…

Giriko wasn’t breathing anymore, cold sweat was dripping down his back and making him shiver in the now stiflingly hot room. That was Justin, actual Justin for a second… and he was fucking  _ pissed _ . So pissed in fact that everything that happened so far was starting to feel fake, manufactured by Arachne just as he had feared… Brushing his fingers hesitantly over Justin’s cheek he watched the glassy purple disappear behind disgruntled eyelids that scrunched up his whole face with displeasure.

“Justin? What are you doing in there? What's happening?” They stared at each other for a second in pure silence, blues and purples fading and mixing in Justin’s pale eyes. Giriko felt sick watching it, sick knowing that he had no idea what was happening. Was Justin fighting against the hypnosis? Trying to make him feel guilty by staring him down in silence? Just straight up thinking about what to say? 

“You… why are you acting like this? You're a monster.” Baby blue was crashing over a drowningly dark purple in waves, but it kept being swept back no matter how hard it came fighting back each time. Giriko found himself so captivated by it that he almost missed Justin’s question entirely. When he finally snapped out of it he moved over Justin to make better eye contact, ignoring how small the brat felt under him.

“I’m not a monster, I just protect what's mine. I never sought you out, you just kept showing up attacking.” Justin didn’t look right like this, he didn’t look like himself out of his uniform, he didn’t belong here, pinned under Giriko looking up with dead eyes that were searching for some kind of answer. A sharp smile that was a pale imitation of the ones Giriko had usually seen on the blonde while they were fighting bloomed on his lips with the tiniest laugh.

“You said you’d find me and kick my ass one day, what is that if not seeking me out?” Turning a bright red he hoped was invisible in the dark room Giriko swallowed back the throbbing of his heart, the excitement of hearing what he had come to know as Justin’s tone of voice once again. The warm feeling was easy enough to stifle with Justin’s point though… he wasn’t even sure how to respond to that…

“You're acting different than yesterday, I thought you were going to break down crying… what changed here?” If there was one thing Giriko was good at it was retreating once he realized things weren’t going in his favor. Justin’s expression twitched the miniscule amount it could, giving off that infuriating superiority complex with barely any movement, screaming  _ ‘I knew I was right’ _ without any words… It riled Giriko up something awful, but also was way too relieving. 

“Adaptation, or maybe realization that you aren’t the person I want to be helping me.” It stung, it felt like salt and lemon juice and dirt and windex and everything that wasn’t supposed to ever go into a wound being jammed right up into a giant laceration that scrapped all the way into his heart. He felt like his heart was bleeding right out onto Justin, they were too close together right now for him to handle this sudden rejection, especially after everything that had just happened. Gritting his teeth he moved to sit back, to force space between them. 

Justin’s hand suddenly went vice tight around one of his wrists, bright blue staring at him with a fury that surpassed anything he would’ve ever thought the ‘holy’ weapon could muster up. It was Justin again, no influence, Justin’s mouth opened and for a second Giriko wondered if he went deaf with the anticipation of what could possibly be said right now. 

“Don’t you dare leave me alone like this.” There was some purple edging around Justin’s irises, but as much as it was trying to push all the way in and take over it couldn’t seem to beat Justin right now. The brat’s fury wasn’t to be messed with here… Giriko could only wonder what it’d look like completely unrestrained. As intoxicating as that curiosity was, he had a good feeling he didn’t actually want to see it play out.

“Why the fuck are you telling me to leave then?” Justin’s face tinged pink and the purple flooded his eyes in a flash as he withdrew all his aggression in embarrassment. ‘ _ Fuck _ .’ Giriko hadn’t meant to say it out loud but it felt appropriate anyway. He wasn’t ready for the actual Justin to disappear again, he still had a million more questions. 

“Justin come on, come back you little shit don’t hide in there like a coward!” Logically Giriko knew this had nothing to do with cowardice, but if he made Justin angry enough he’d be able to break past again… right? That’s how it happened the first time, wasn’t it? Giriko actually wasn’t sure but he’d fucking try anything. Slapping the scythe’s face back and forth between his hands for a second there was an obvious irritation starting to form but the purple wasn’t fading even a little bit… if anything it looked as if it was turning into a deeper more sickly color. 

“Goddammit you brat! How am I supposed to know what to do when you keep drowning like this!” Giriko didn’t know Justin all that well… but from what he did know he would be willing to bet Justin’s response would be to blame Arachne instead of him, which unfortunately wouldn’t be completely wrong. Justin couldn’t overtake her, at least not for very long, so it only made sense he was brain dead and drippy again after that short breakthrough. 

Covering his face with tired hands Giriko let a heavy sigh fall out from the bottom of his lungs. Ok. Well he knew Justin didn’t want him to leave for sure now, and that the brat, despite being rather rude about everything and obviously confused, was starting to see him in a better light… so that was something

Giriko paused. Justin had said he had thought he was a monster… so did that mean he had hated him until just yesterday? Giriko was seriously going to kill himself, there was way too much unanswered here, way too much information he needed to know missing. He couldn’t just keep taking care of Justin not knowing any of this, his sanity needed answers. Rolling off of Justin back onto the bed he let out another over dramatic sigh before peeking back over to the purple staring intently at him.

“You know you made this even harder than it already was with all of that… right?” Justin blinked and shifted a bit closer so his head was resting on Giriko’s chest, his head tucked under the enchanter’s chin… Giriko only laughed in a mocking kind of way. This was ridiculous. How was he supposed to do anything under these conditions? 

“Are you just all talk? Like a yipping dog that once it realizes it's helpless runs to whoever makes it feel safest?” there was a weird whine from Justin in response that sounded angry but Giriko only took it as a confirmation. Scoffing he wrapped his arms around the brat’s waist and laid back. The fear of touching Justin wrong was pretty much gone at this point and now that he had his hands actually on the scythe without being so nervous he was finding himself way too pleased. 

This was one of Lord Death’s personal weapons and he had him hiding away in his arms… it felt like he had personally spit in the face of Death and was just as amazing as that sounded. Humming with all the weird pleasure he was finding from this he found himself kiss Justin’s temple softly without even considering what he was doing… And then freeze completely solid. 

Ah.

Ah shit.

He was really at the point of no return now wasn’t he?

If Justin made any kind of miniscule twitch or noise or some kind of reaction with his limited range of abilities right now Giriko completely missed it- he was too busy being blind deaf and dumb in his shock, his mouth even agape to complete the look. When the initial thundering disbelief passed he just felt nervous, sweating bullets and staring into the wall thinking about what Arachne would possibly think about this… 

He wasn’t concerned about Justin at all anymore, now he was worried about himself. What the fuck was he doing? What the fuck kinda shit had he found himself in? Justin was what? Almost a millennium his junior? A hyper religious zealot worshipping the person he had sworn would get his just desserts? A fucking brat who thought he was some how better than everyone else because he had a little seal of approval from again- Giriko’s worst enemy. 

Had he gotten sick? Did Justin fucking infect him with something? There was no way he was this dumb… no. It wasn’t possible. He had spent lives upon lives never feeling much more than a passing fancy, always holding out for Arachne’s return and staying faithful to her… he could not care about anyone else like that. Especially not Justin. The kid was a pain in the ass anyway, nothing but annoying. The three seconds he was actually himself again he was nothing but unhelpful and cocky. 

Sitting up like an arrow Justin made a noise of annoyance that Giriko completely ignored. Nope. No he wasn’t going to let any of this take hold. He was doing a job for Arachne and that was it. Messing around and seeing the brat look so misguidedly to him for safety was all in good fun at first but now that it was starting to seem like… like it could mess things up… it wasn’t fun anymore. It needed to stop dead in it's tracks. 

“Come on, get up brat.” Justin followed the command perfectly, still stuck under the hypnosis’s spell. He kicked his way out of the covers and jumped off the bed to face the enchanter and remind him that he was still very much out of his normal clothes and pantless. Fuck. This had to be some kinda fucking joke. Big purple eyes blinked at him in confusion, filled with an innocence that Giriko just fucking knew was fake. The brat had to know what he was doing here, he was probably smiling all thin and snake like on the inside like the bastard he was. 

His face was burning red as he shamefully turned on the lights and looked back at Justin with the most pathetic glare he had probably ever managed. The scythe only tilted his head, looking to say something but unable to without permission. Giriko sure as hell wasn’t going to give him that permission. He didn’t care what Justin was thinking right now.  _ He didn’t.  _ Letting out a few shaky breaths he stomped over to grab Justin’s hand and tug him out the door, not bothering to dress either of them in real clothes as he tugged the other along to where Mosquito, Arachne and himself usually ate. 

The chances of either of them being around at this hour was almost zero so he didn’t really have any fear of getting caught. He was just going to bring Justin there, find one of the nicer couches for the brat, and leave him there. It wasn’t like the kid could escape and Mosquito would find him before any real emergency would come up… It was the best choice here. Justin was their fucking prisoner anyway, there was no need for Giriko to be babysitting him. 

Justin stumbled over his feet a bit as they picked up pace and Giriko felt his throat swell shut in guilt. There wasn’t anything to feel guilty about though. He didn’t have any obligation to Justin, he didn’t owe the kid shit. Still the words  _ ‘don’t you dare leave me alone like this.’  _ thundered in his head. Justin had obviously sounded angry, but above that  _ scared _ . He was going to abandon this scared kid somewhere… Why did that even bother him though? He couldn’t remember the last time he gave half a crap about how someone other than Arachne felt. 

When they finally made it to the dining room it felt far too cold, frozen with the night that apparently still hadn’t lifted. Giriko never bothered to check the time waking up but he was glad that he hadn’t now. It would make this easier. Turning back to Justin he felt his windpipe tie into bows at how Justin was looking around with uncertain and worried eyes. He had to do this. Justin wasn’t his, he didn’t want Justin to be his anyway… 

Justin’s hand felt heavy in his own, relying on him to lead the way… trusting him. Giriko was going to throw up. He felt dizzy, his head was pounding as if he was experiencing the worst hangover of his life. Giriko had thought his tears had dried up forever ago, he had used them all after Arachne’s ‘death’ but his eyes were feeling undeniably wet right now. Justin was starting to look scared himself, was starting to pull back a bit. 

The kid wasn’t going to be able to resist even if he wanted to, wouldn’t be able to complain, scream or cry not be left, he’d be forced to take it in silence, his inability to object was really going to be what was going to let Giriko do this. There's no way he’d be able to leave the other here to sob. Somehow the fact that Justin couldn’t made it better or at least let him ignore it enough to go through with this. 

His chest was starting to feel tight as they made it to Arachne’s lounge. He was really going to do this wasn’t he? This undoubtedly would be the last time he’d see Justin, at least in the way he’d remember him… It would be the last time Justin would ever dare to trust him. This would end everything in its tracks, make sure none of this went too far. The guilt would be worth it. It wasn’t like he had to feel too bad about it anyway… Justin had already said he was questioning if he really wanted to trust him, he had already said he thought Giriko was a monster… it wasn’t like Justin would be shocked by this. 

“Justin go-”

“Oh what are you two doing here?” Pulling Justin’s arm fast enough to make the brat stumble close Giriko turned to see who had just walked in on this. It looked like a random Arachnophobia member… one that shouldn’t be allowed up here at all. Opening his mouth to scream at them to mind their place he was cut off again by the woman- the  _ witch  _ taking off her mask with a thin smile.

“Ah so Lady Medusa was right, you guys have found a Death Scythe of your own. Arachne’s tricky for sure.” Alarm bells were going off in Giriko’s head. This woman clearly wasn’t as strong as Arachne, but that name, Medusa, it was familiar. Something dangerous was going on here… but somehow he was thankful for this new enemy. Ready to pass out again because as much as he hated himself for admitting it… The fact that Justin’s hand was still in his own was the best way this could’ve ended. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who could it be? who could it be? I don't think its really much of a question but hey, maybe to some people it is. Also everyone shame Giriko for almost doing that, what a goddamn bastard.


	5. Chapter 5

The woman’s smile was devious, extremely pleased with herself for running into this as if it gave her blackmail material or something. Giriko honestly wasn’t sure what her angle was going to be, what she thought she had found out here that was worth knowing. There was no way she could’ve of predicted his plan, and even if she did there wasn’t anyway to prove it… so why the fuck did she look so happy? 

“I see Arachne is just as ruthless about gaining allies as her sister is… it makes me almost thankful my situation still gives me control over my own life and death.” Giriko’s mouth immediately bent into a strained frown and his neck whipped around to look at Justin’s reaction… there was of course none. The scythe looked as mechanical as he normally did under Arachne’s hypnosis. He wasn’t perturbed enough for any emotion to really break past the oppressive control. The woman didn’t seem all that upset that her insult fell flat and continued on. 

“Well I’m not just here to leer, Lady Medusa’s question wasn’t just about if you were here or not, we knew you were. The question is if anyone can control you, so why don’t you say something for me Justin?” Giriko’s temper immediately spiked, a rage flickering to life within an instant. Thank fucking christ he didn’t get here a minute earlier. If he left Justin here this bitch would’ve found him first and then what? Surely nothing good. What the fuck did she think she was doing? Right infront of him too, acting like he wasn’t even here. Puffing up his chest subconsciously he moved towards her, ready to throw her out the window, out of his fucking territory. Justin’s hand tightened around his own, stopping him dead in his tracks before he even managed a step. 

“Medusa is the witch who woke up Asura, so aren’t you working alongside Arachne here? Why bother messing with me when you can just ask her.” Justin’s response was surprisingly level, no screaming or kicking his feet, no sass or anything that would be totally deserved after being toyed with like that. Giriko couldn’t decide if he was impressed or disappointed in the scythe for just taking that without any sort of bite back. The witch seemed to just sniff in distaste, annoyed by the lack of reaction but not too off put.

“I’m not going to pretend to know what Medusa is planning here but I’m certain Arachne would never help her out in any way possible. Even I know they hate each other.” She wasn't wrong. Giriko didn’t know all that much about Medusa and Arachne’s relationship, but he knew it was bad and that this woman was 100% right… which brought up the question of who the fuck she was to know these things. With that in mind he was more than ready to cut in, especially ‘cause he didn’t want her talking to Justin anymore than she already was. Unfortunately the brat beat him to respond. 

“I never realized you guys had such an internal power struggle… no wonder your efforts are going nowhere.” What a cocky little shit. Finally managing to cut in, Giriko shoved Justin back hard enough that the kid was forced to let go and tumble onto the sofa they had just been heading towards with a shrill and surprised noise. The women only looked up to him with a sneer, putting her hands on his hips and puffing herself up to look more threatening. 

“Who the fuck are you? Are you a fucking moron? You're really going to give up your cover to be a piece of shit?” The woman raised her eyebrow, a smug smile blooming on her lips that looked dangerous and sadistic. She looked back down at Justin with the same look before reconnecting eyes with Giriko with a mock confusion that wasn’t even the slightest bit convincing. She was a fucking shitty actor.

“Eruka the frog witch, I could give less of a shit if my cover is blown, especially because what are you going to do? Tattle to Arachne? Tell her that her sister figured out that she can manipulate your precious friend Justin Law? What do you think she’ll do if she figures that out?” The smile that peeled across Giriko’s face was filled with sharp teeth and a silent threat. If they were going to play this game he didn’t need to tell Arachne anything, he could take Eruka out himself. Her blood would look great staining the walls. 

“Arachne isn’t the only one who can make decisions here.” A low whirring started coming out of the back of Giriko’s neck, a vent opening up as his chains started warming up. Giriko was personally against killing witches with the DWMA’s whole weird policies, but if she was threatening Arachne’s plans then who the fuck cared. Eruka didn’t look worried about it though, she only smiled with a soft huff. Whatever she was planning here didn’t make any fucking sense to Giriko. There was something he was missing here… something he probably should wait to figure out before he spilt blood… or at least until he killed her. 

“So do you want to fucking say what you're thinking here, or do you want to wait until you're a pile of flesh i'm dragging around to get answers from?” The faint sense of witches magic started to materialize in the air. At this rate they were just going to wake everyone before they came to any kind of conclusion. Which didn’t matter too much to Giriko, but the fact that Eruka still didn’t seem alarmed was making him the slightest bit uneasy. 

“I think it’d be best for you to be patient and-”

“Eruka?” Everything froze and everyone besides Justin whipped around to see who the hell just walked in. Giriko instantly paled. This new guy was fucking huge, even bigger than Giriko himself. He looked like a goddamn monster ducking his head down to get into the room. Looking back to Justin for a second to see his reaction Giriko found a new type of rage bubble inside him to see the scythe staring with wide amazed eyes and not even a hint of disgust or fear. This was fucking bullshit. 

“What are you doing in here? I thought we were supposed to be- oh there he is. Hi Justin.” Giriko was at a loss for words at that… this guy sounded like a fucking moron. He had heard the word meathead thrown around a couple times in a past life or earlier in this one or whatever and this seemed like the textbook example. Eruka looked exhausted, like all the wind had left her sails now that she had to deal with this dead weight. They both looked over to Justin to see how the scythe would respond to this.

“Hi.” Justin sound perfectly unbothered, uncaring of the fact he now had two people he didn’t know apparently looking for him here. It was kind of amazing. Giriko supposed it would be hard to be scared of this guy, but it still felt like Justin should’ve been at least a little bit concerned by it all. Maybe the brat was just so tired with everything going on that he stopped caring about all of this. That was entirely possible. Still Justin was all but twirling his hair, leaning back on the couch he had been forced onto, looking bored as hell. He really didn’t give a fuck about this… 

“So what's happening next Eruka, I forgot already. Can you believe that? Man I was just down the hall with one of the Mizunes and she was telling me about what happened to her sister and I totally forgot where we are, it took me forever to even figure out where you disappeared to you know.” Eruka had moved into such a disbelieving and frustrated stance, her hands coming up to pull at her hat in annoyance. If Giriko wasn’t so pissed off he’d offer some pity here, this guy seemed pretty impossible to work with. 

“Free! Shut up! We need to finish up what we’re doing here! Just! Wait outside!” Free’s mouth finally fell closed, but he still didn’t seem to get the tone of things, he just looked confused. He looked around for a second before looking over to Justin with a raised eyebrow. Giriko backed up so he was protectively in front of the brat as Free finally started to move forward to get closer to all of them. Eruka looked similarly upset about him getting closer and made an awkward noise trying to get him to stop. 

“No I got this! Look.” He kept moving forward and both Eruka and Giriko made a momentary truce trying to get him to stop in his tracks. He was way bigger than both of them though and his utter dumbassery let him walk right through them towards Justin, the scythe in question finally starting to seem the slightest bit worried. 

“We were supposed to… hey kid do you want to go with us? Medusa was interested in getting your help… I think.” Justin blinked completely taken off guard by the question, Giriko was going to tear this guy apart, size be damned. He wasn’t that much smaller, plus being that big this Free guy’s stomach would be easy to rip open with a simple kick. Growling slightly Eruka seemed to follow his train of thought and pushed him back from Free with a stern glare. Fucking bitch, Giriko wasn’t sure how he could take on a witch and this fucking behemoth at the same time but like fuck he was going to let this happen. 

“No. Do you really think I’d want to help the witch that woke up Asura?” Justin was still out of it, still hypnotised with weirdly spaced words that clearly took effort to get out, but the amount of disbelief and disgust still made itself known here. He was at a complete loss hearing that offer, and Giriko couldn’t really blame him. It was a pretty moronic request. For whatever reason Free didn’t get the message though.

“Why not? It’s not like it's a huge problem here.” The silence that fell over all of them was riddled with disbelief, Justin looked like he wanted to scream. If Giriko could be in the scythe’s skin in this moment and feel what it was like to be an extremely loyal DWMA member surrounded by people who hated the academy and were all trying to do the opposite of what he was and be unable to even say how angry that made him… he’d probably feel like he was living those 800 years all over again. It felt shamefully good to see someone else going through the same pain he had.

“People are dying.” Justin’s response was extremely tame, so much so that Giriko was shocked until he noticed Justin’s eyes had turned a darker purple. He was being even more restrained then he had been, he was bloodthirsty in there, being tied down… Giriko wondered if he let this situation go long enough if Arachne’s hypnosis would give out eventually and a pissed death scythe would shower the room in blood and eat the souls of everyone here like he had been clearly taught to do. Well assuming he won.

Giriko had a good feeling Justin could beat Free and Eruka considering the fights he had put up before, but there wasn’t any real way to know, especially because he had never seen these two dumbasses try anything yet. Still he was sure Justin would run into a dead wall trying to lash out against him, especially after being tuckered out from fighting two others. Turning an upset, denial ridden red Giriko tried to ignore the fact that he found the idea of a tired, bloodied Justin trying to fight him before collapsing warm and heavy into his arms adorable. 

“Ah well, people are always dying. Hey, Eruka? It’s not working.” The witch rubbed a tired hand down her face, shaking her head in a disgusted disappointment. Free seemed to finally get that she was exhausted with him, but he still didn’t seem to understand why. Giriko didn’t even know what to say. He wasn’t brought to silence often but this time he just moved past the two intruders without so much of a word and picked up Justin to balance in his arms. He wasn’t going to risk either of them getting anywhere near the blonde any more than they already had, and Justin seemed to appreciate that, curling into Giriko and hiding his face in the crook of his neck with a noise that screamed he was tired and wanted out of this. It made Giriko’s heart jump into his throat. 

“I don’t know what the two of you think you're doing but if you don’t want to die I’d suggest running now.” Justin seemed to cuddle deeper into him with that, silent praise for doing what he wanted and scaring them off. Giriko took that with too much pride, he could already tell Justin was going to be able to encourage him to do things better than he really should be able to. There was just something about the way the brat made his heart skip… it was fucking intoxicating. 

Eruka sneered at the display, trying to make him somehow feel subconscious as if he was the one doing something absurd here. Glaring at both of them he was shocked to see Free for once was on the same page as everyone else about what was happening. His mouth was slightly open in shock and he looked embarrassed. 

"Oh I had no idea, I'm sorry-" Eruka shouted to cut him off and Giriko himself turned bright red and started to sputter in rejection. He-! That wasn't! He wasn't even sure how to respond. Free had caught him completely off guard with that and now he was just floundering. Justin himself sat more upright to peek over his shoulder at Free with a curious expression. 

"Eruka what's going on here? I think I might have missed something." It was amazing how out of the loop this guy was, it was like everything was going entirely over his head, in one ear and out the other. Giriko was moving past being shocked and into annoyance though. Eruka seemed to already be well into that, probably used to this shit show.

"We're leaving that's what's happening, I'll fix it later." Free  _ wilted  _ at that, he looked like a kicked puppy, distraught he hadn't been able to do it himself. He also looked committed to fixing this  _ now  _ by  _ himself _ . Giriko knew better than anyone how dangerous an idiot refusing to give up was. 

"I didn't mess it up did I? God that prison took too much out of me! It's impossible to catch up after a thousand years!" Free said it in a way that sounded like he was gloating about his apparent immorality while also berating himself for not being able to do whatever he was trying to do here. Still the part that stuck out the most to Giriko here was that Free was older than him… that was hard to come by, especially cause this guy clearly wasn't a sorcerer. A bit of interest began to prick at his mind.

"No, no you didn't mess it up we just have to  _ go _ ." It wasn’t clear whether Eruka was rather trying to protect this dumbasses feelings or if she was just making sure they actually left here and there wasn't any stubbornness stopping their escape. Giriko was leaning towards the latter, she didn't seem to be the most gentle of women. He also didn’t blame her though, there was no way he could summon up any pity for a man this dumb… he’d probably forget whatever was making him sad in 15 minutes anyway.

Still, Giriko was transfixed with this now. Completely fascinated by the utter weirdness and poor planning these two had. There was so much he was trying to take note of, to see so he could plan what to do about these meddlers from here, that he almost jumped a foot when Justin shifted in his arms. Somehow, in all this he had forgotten Justin was here- that he was  _ holding _ Justin. The brat had been so quiet that it was insanely easy to forget about him once things got going. 

It was amazing how fast Justin faded into the background like this… he couldn’t really do anything on his own so he was easily dismissed as unimportant as things kicked up. He wondered how the kid was experiencing this, if he was screaming inside of there with how powerless and ignored he was or if he was just sitting around bored. There really wasn’t any telling… they  _ needed  _ something to wake him up more. These two interlopers made it unignorable. 

Watching the two ‘escape’ Giriko felt his mouth pull down into a strained grimace. He had to go talk to Arachne about this… there wasn’t anything he could do about the hypnosis alone. Whatever her solution would be though, there’d be little way to argue with it. Giriko could only hope it wasn’t anything too dramatic. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk where Eruka and Free came from tbh, just needed a segway I guess. I have a bit of this left so I'll try to finish it up soon :>


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is by far my most popular fic so I pushed it up on my list to update recently ;v; This time with some special Arachne action because this fic is kinda her time to shine.

Giriko’s shirt was cold… Of course it was, the enchanter had never bothered to give him pants despite the fact it was still very much winter and the middle of the night. It was a miserable frosty experience that had been made  _ slightly  _ better for Justin when Giriko picked him up and shared their body heat, but apparently was nothing more than just a giant fuck you as he was quickly put back down again when Medusa’s assistants left. If Justin could hiss he would’ve when the sensitive soles of his feet were placed back onto the frozen marble floors. He hated this, he hated being cold… 

He wasn’t getting the slightest lick of pity though. Giriko intertwined their hands again to start to drag him somewhere else, completely ignoring the fact that it was even colder in the hallways and that Justin was still limping. Apparently Giriko was even more of an idiot than Justin originally had thought, it really didn’t seem like he even noticed Justin was still very much beaten up. One would think Giriko would remember why Justin was here, having lost a fight and having hit the ground with what had to be an incredible impact for how dizzy and nauseous he was… but apparently he didn’t. 

Justin wanted to just collapse, to fall into a pile of bones and just lay there. All his joints were wobbling and he couldn’t see straight anymore. Giriko seemed entirely lost in his own world, not paying any attention to him at all, probably not even considering that Justin could be suffering under the sedating effects of Arachne’s influence… What he wouldn’t give for Giriko’s dumbassery to be right and for this stupid evil bullshit to have some type of pain relief mixed into it all. Closing off enough of his brain that he wouldn’t have to be so aware of how much it all hurt… As if hearing his pitiful complaints the hypnosis gave him the slightest bit of reconciliation and let a few warm tears wet his cheeks. 

What was Giriko even doing anymore? He wasn’t explaining anything and Justin couldn’t do anything but follow with slightly wet eyes that were so discreet that Giriko wasn’t even noticing he was trying to complain. It was so late… surely the enchanter was tired too… Didn’t he want to rest? Where did he have all this energy? He was just in that fight too, and he had almost lost himself… plus wasn’t he supposed to be an old man? What was making him so inclined to keep moving? 

Trying to let out a deep breath Arachne’s control stopped him, not wanting him to breathe anything but forced calm steady breaths, it made him choke for a second before managing to find that rhythm again. He didn’t understand this… he didn’t know why he had a weird constant tunnel vision that left him stumbling without Giriko’s firm hand around his own or why he couldn’t really think past the thick painful haze over his mind. 

Since he had calmed down from the initial shock he had just been trying to understand what was happening to him, not looking for a way to escape or attack, he just wanted to know what was happening. It was impossibly hard to think though, every time he started any kind of thought process he’d only be able to get a minute or so in before it fell apart and everything he was thinking earlier suddenly stopped making sense.

It was horrible, he wanted to start wailing loud cries that would probably scare the shit out of Giriko and let him know how unhappy he was, how he was desperate enough to look for pity from his worst enemies. Well, desperate enough to look for Giriko’s pity, he was fairly certain he wouldn’t do the same for anyone else here. He was far too worried about what their form of pity would be.

Still, his feet seriously felt like they were going to freeze to the floor… Why was it so cold here? Did witches not feel the cold? Trying to get his mind off the pain that he knew he just had to relent to, he looked out the large floor length windows paneling the walls of their hallways. Justin’s lips pursed as he saw the laughing moon staring him down. Never before had he felt so mocked by it. Beyond just that though, Justin was surprised to see what outside looked like here… he hadn’t been awake when they brought him here, never saw what route it took to get here or what it looked like outside. They were in a forest, lush greenery that said even if he got out he’d probably die in the woods without directions.

Justin wasn’t so disillusioned to think the academy was coming for him, he knew they weren’t. They were looking for this place certainly- but to kill Arachne, not to save him. If they found him, great. They’d probably be happy to see him in one piece. Still, scythes were disposable. The nature of their job meant they had to be ready to break into pieces under Lord Death’s overwhelming wavelength or die on their missions to help further the wishes of the academy. 

This was part of their job, their sacrifice was expected and easily forgotten.

Plus, Justin hadn’t completely given up hope yet. He didn’t doubt for a minute the academy would beat Arachnophobia to the ground, the question was just if he’d survive this long enough for that to happen. So far he had been treated surprisingly gently, Arachne making some indications that she wanted him taken care of for whatever reason… Justin wasn’t calmed by that at all though. In fact, it just made him far more nervous than he would’ve been in any other circumstance. Not knowing what they wanted him for was petrifying, at least if he was a standard prisoner he’d know he was just being used for some piss-poor attempt at bargaining. 

Giriko stopped dead and before Justin could notice he ran face first into the man’s back, making a small noise of pained distaste as his nose bent against Giriko’s back. Luckily, he was able to step back to breathe, the hypnosis not keeping him face planted until Giriko moved him. It was a relief followed by a horrible disappointment, he found himself longing for the momentary contact, as awkward as it was. Giriko was so warm… he was like a furnace and Justin wanted nothing more than to have Giriko wrap him up in a hug so he could warm up and feel his fingers again. 

For the briefest second he thought that was exactly what Giriko was going to do, his throat closed up and he got all excited only for the enchanter to instead just look at him with weirdly pained eyes and go to open the door they had stopped in front of. 

Justin wasn’t sure if he had ever felt so blandly disappointed and annoyed in his entire life. He wasn’t sure why he expected anything different here, but god was he still pissed off. It was clear Giriko was worrying himself to death, having a moment that Justin really couldn’t care less about. His patience had long dwindled to zero and hell if he gave a rat's ass about what ‘suffering’ Giriko was going through because of this. 

Really, if at any point in this Justin had to listen to Giriko complain about this he was going to find a way out of this hypnosis himself just to kill the other man, to make him understand he had no leg to stand on calling anything hard right now. He had  _ no  _ pity for whatever pain was behind the older man’s eyes, especially not while he was turning into a human popsicle and being denied any extra body heat. Huffy was probably an appropriate word for him right now but he refused to admit that.

Not that he’d ever have to because all those feelings went dead silent as he finally figured out where they were going. It was amazing how fast his knees locked up as he was pushed into Arachne’s room again, desperately buckling and trying to make it impossible for Giriko to move him. Justin still couldn’t really speak or make any indication of what he was feeling past the hypnosis that kept him obediently still and silent… but he did manage a tiny pitiful whining noise as he leaned all the way back into Giriko’s arms, trying to hide inside the man’s arms and not have to go up to her like last time.

It didn’t work, not like he thought it magically would this time but the disappointment was still there as Giriko picked him off his feet for a second to shuffle them in and close the door. Justin wanted to cry, to make pathetic noises, to beg or do really anything that would somehow get Giriko to turn around here. What were they even doing in here again? 

Surely Giriko wasn’t so unprofessional as to bother his very very busy witch with every little thing that could be bothering him… and if he was what did he need to bring Justin for? Justin was more than fine waiting in the man’s room. Giriko wouldn’t even have to worry about Justin doing anything bad because he had to stay still as stone with this hypnosis anyway! There was really no reason at all that Justin had to be here… 

“Ah… Giriko what are you doing coming in so late? And with Justin as well… Am I getting a surprise?” The squeaking noise that came out of Justin was entirely involuntary and it was honestly probably a part of Arachne’s plan that it would come out from behind the hypnosis and turn his cheeks an embarrassed red. The eye contact they made as Arachne turned to look at him and see his red face was horrific, she looked so happy and pleased to see him, but not in a friendly way… it was more a playful and sadistic look Justin wanted nothing to do with.

“I… was actually coming in to ask for uh… ask for your help with this.” Hypnosis meant nothing in the 3 seconds after those words came through Giriko’s lips, Justin’s body moved as if it was entirely his own again and he flipped around to grab onto Giriko with an iron tight grip that knocked the wind out of the older man. No.  _ No.  _ He wasn’t going to be abandoned here… Giriko hadn’t just done this to him… Tears squeezed out of the corners of his eyes and a small whimper came out of his mouth as he tried to get even closer to the enchanter, giving one final effort to show how good he’d be if Giriko didn’t just leave him for dead with the witch.

“Oh? I think he doesn’t agree with that, but what was it? You have my full interest.” Justin wasn’t the type to cry but he wondered if he’d be sobbing in fear right now under normal circumstances… He hadn’t felt this powerless and preyed on in a blessedly long time. Giriko had made an awkward wheezing noise as Justin squeezed all the air right out of his lungs, but thankfully didn’t bother to get mad or hold it against him as he held Justin’s shaking body in an attempt to be comforting. 

“Yeah, well I was wondering if there was something we could do about this hypnosis… having to help him get dressed and eat and stuff isn’t exactly ideal, so…” Giriko trailed off, not wanting to say exactly what he was looking for but hoping he had made it obvious enough. He had been pretty up front so Justin would be shocked if Arachne, a supposed genius who had created weapons from nothing, didn’t get it. She gave a long hum, making Justin tense up more, not exactly pleased to be the topic of conversation between these two. 

“Yes, I see your point. Well hand him over then…” Both Justin and Giriko went as stiff as stone, holding onto each other so hard it wouldn’t be all that surprising if they turned out to be bruised tomorrow. Justin wasn’t really sure what Giriko had been thinking, or why he was surprised by that response and holding on with such an unwillingness to do exactly what he had come in looking for. It didn’t really matter all that much though, Justin didn’t care what Giriko intention was, he just didn’t want to be let go.

“W-Wait… I didn’t mean it like that, I can take care of him I just meant like… there’s got to be more liberty we can give him to make it easier on all of us right?” Giriko was really such an idiot, Justin was in shock listening to this. He loved to scream how Justin was too trusting, but he was fully expecting Arachne’s cooperation here, clearly and completely lost to the fact he was an underling here and that his opinions didn’t matter. Justin almost wanted to sit him down and teach him that with where he was in status he’d only get what he wanted if he could say it with confidence and ‘reasons’ that were convincing even if false. Because at this point… Justin’s fate really rested on Giriko’s ability to lie…

“Yes I understand Giriko, but to figure out what that will be I think I want to spend the night with him. When you come back in the morning we’ll have it all figured out.” Giriko’s face looked pale and torn, not wanting to talk back or disobey his witch at all but not 100% on board with leaving Justin here either. Justin held his breath, holding tight onto Giriko’s shirt and savoring the feeling of the enchanter’s hand cupped protectively around the back of his head. As much as his pride hated to admit, he would be crying right now if he could. He was scared, and Giriko obviously knew how scared he was. 

“Little one don’t be so horrified, can’t you see you’re worrying my enchanter? Come here, I’ll take care of you tonight, it will be fine… put on your big Death Scythe face and tell him it will be fine.” Justin’s stomach was churning, Arachne’s words were piercing and impossible to ignore, making him feel dizzy and helpless as he looked up at Giriko with wet eyes. It was shocking to see Giriko was grinding his teeth, angry with all of this… He looked hurt, betrayed almost… Justin wouldn’t have expected Giriko to get upset about his witch’s disregard so soon. He almost wanted to comfort the man… Instead what came out was an entirely involuntary-

“It’ll be fine Giriko, we’ll see each other tomorrow.” It was upbeat, odd, it didn’t feel like him at all… because it wasn’t him. It was how Arachne imagined him talking… she was talking for him, commanding him to say what she wanted him to… Justin was at a loss feeling those words past through his lips, feeling someone else speak for him and use him as a puppet. It was scarily convincing, it was his voice, his tone, but it still wasn’t  _ right _ . Giriko was smart enough to realize that, he backed up in utter shock, staring down at Justin as if he was a monster. 

“Oh what a good job… I’m amazed, you have such talent Justin. I can see that you have lots of practice with saying things you don’t want to say.” Justin felt his face burn as she said that, unearthing far too much about him while also managing to keep it all secret. It also made it clear that she had indeed been the one to make him say that, which Giriko had clearly already picked up on but if he hadn’t she was really just letting him know she was doing whatever she wanted here. 

“Well anyway, I’ll call for you later Giriko. You’re dismissed for now.” Justin didn’t know anything about Giriko really, much less Giriko’s and Arachne’s relationship, but if the reaction to the cold refusal he got there said anything, that wasn’t normal for how they talked. Giriko looked truly heartbroken, at a loss of what to do… From Justin’s outsider perspective to all of this it just seemed like Arachne was annoyed at Giriko for taking too long to obey and leave when he was told to, but really who knew. Justin couldn’t imagine Giriko was ever amazing at following any orders but if this had anything to say maybe he could manage it in the right scenario. 

Hesitantly, painfully slow Giriko left, blood running down his chin as he bit right through his lip, his fists clenched hard enough that it looked like the skin might rip. Justin took the image in meticulously, a new long term memory, an unforgettable experience being burnt into his mind… being abandoned in the spider’s web. When the door finally closed Justin just found himself staring blankly at where the light had been just seconds ago. 

He didn’t blame Giriko for leaving, he wasn’t mad or shocked… just trying to swallow the feeling of being met with his despair. There was something far worse about this than a normal death, having the time to think about it, to realize he was somewhere he could die any second, a place where others had certainly died before… it felt almost otherworldly. A weird mixture of being in reality where nothing felt different, where reality was the same as it always was, while also knowing unspeakable acts had happened all around him.

Justin wasn’t a meister, but even he could feel the ripped up remains of souls around him, shreds of the people they once were stuck to Arachne’s weblike wavelength filling the room. Justin wondered if his soul had been tangled into those webs yet, they would be eventually, he could only hope that whatever got stuck wasn’t worth missing. 

He still hadn’t been turned around yet… was his mind moving so fast that he was getting impatient or was Arachne just letting him take it in and start to understand the tragedy of this situation? 

“You’re quite the interesting weapon aren’t you? You haven’t been fighting back very much at all… what are you planning?” Justin didn’t respond, but he also couldn’t respond. Arachne knew that, she was probably talking more to herself here. They spent a few more seconds in silence before she decided she was done with waiting around, and had him turn around with a flick of her finger. The eye contact they made was deadly, Arachne seemed very happy with the fire in his eyes, mocking him with the reminder of how powerless he was here.

“Well, why don’t you tell me?” It was like a cork popping free, such a large part of the hypnosis disappearing Justin gasped and almost collapsed, suddenly having to think about keeping himself up right instead of being forced. He staggered for a second, holding onto his stomach for a poor form of support as he stared into the floor with wide eyes… he… he was himself again, mostly. Why had Arachne done that? Was she that unafraid of him? 

“How can I plan anything like this? I’m just waiting for Lord Death’s saving grace here. I know he’ll come save me.” The smile on Justin’s lips was sugary sweet, saccharine, artificial and filled with preservatives. Arachne sighed, exhausted and disappointed in his answer. She clearly knew he wasn’t telling the truth, smart enough to see past that ruse, as if Justin was bothering to try to be convincing right now. 

“Oh yes if my memory serves me right Death always treats his weapons with the utmost respect, he doesn’t neglect him for his still ‘pure’ meisters.” Justin tilted his head in a mock confusion. He knew what she meant, and her words stung worse than anything he could’ve imagined coming from her lips… but he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of a pained response. 

“You’re right I feel so respected right now, Witch Arachne you really know how to treat weapons to make them feel at home.” Arachne laughed at that, actually agreeing with him to an extent, finding amusement in him… Justin wasn’t sure he liked that. He wanted a mutual hatred between them, he wanted this witch to  _ hate  _ him. She didn’t seem to, she actually seemed to like him more than anything… It made Justin’s skin feel as if it had been covered in a layer of grime he’d never be able to wash clean. 

“Well it wouldn’t have to be this way if you weren’t so violent, you spoke so ill about my chainsaw’s bloodlust but I can see the hatred in your heart… you’ve never liked Death, have you?” Justin’s world went painfully still for a second, a static flickering over his skin, a bitter taste in his mouth, every hair follicle feeling as if they were dug far too into his head. Arachne didn’t rush him to respond, they just stared at each other, a blank unsettling haze over Justin’s face… one filled with a desire for violence that he hadn’t even processed himself yet. 

“What do you mean? He’s the most holy, the reason for my life and forgiveness.” Justin didn’t even notice himself saying those words, just how his jaw moved and bothered him with how robotic the movement of the mandible was… only able to go up and down on a hinge. He didn’t feel human right now, he didn’t feel in control of his body but it wasn’t the same as it had been earlier with Arachne using him as a puppet. No… he wasn’t a puppet right now, he was a clown, a marionette with a painted on smile, dancing on it's strings, it's head twisting around with every move, never properly connected to the rest of its body. 

“I’m certain he is, but really… is this the life you wanted?” Justin’s fingers started to twitch weirdly, all the muscles and sinews feeling as if they were being moved by something else, trying to distract him from falling too far into his head. Every one of his breaths were forced and heavy, going up and down as his ribs pulled out and then pushed back in. The body truly moved far too much on it's own, it was distracting, it’d be so much easier if it all just  _ stopped _ . 

“Is this the life you wanted Lady Arachne? To be nothing more than a disembodied soul for 800 years because you could never play nice?” The room went a different kind of quiet there, Arachne sitting up more, no longer completely relaxed and entertained. It was a small victory on his part, but he wasn’t in any place to take satisfaction from that. If Arachne was smart enough she’d realize that was the answer to her question anyway. 

“I see. Well, I guess I gave you more credit than you deserve. Self respect goes a long way you know?” It was rare for someone to tell Justin he didn’t have enough pride, rare enough that it actually made Justin give her a thin smile. There were always two ways a person reacted to being truly seen for the first time, rather feeling a deep sense of validation or being wracked with self disgust. Justin felt neither of those, he couldn’t feel either of those when it was Arachne doing the seeing. Her views of him were less than worthless.

“Perhaps too far at times Lady Arachne.” She was tapping her overly long nails at the ordinate wood frame of her lounge, her frustration and anger no longer able to stay completely hidden. Justin was getting to her, saying things she didn’t want to hear, didn’t want to be reminded of. Justin almost pitied her, almost. 

“It's no wonder you are so unalarmed and unbothered by my hypnosis then, you're practically under your own form everyday…” If Justin wasn’t so used to Stein’s insults he probably would’ve been bothered by that. He did have to deal with Stein’s insufferable need to call him out of being ‘fake’ or stupid or whatever else though, so this just made him raise a judgemental eyebrow. 

“I think most people call it self restraint. It really does wonders in letting you participate in society instead of spending it all in hiding.” Arachne was glaring now, no longer entertained in the slightest, no longer liking Justin at all. Good. That was how she should’ve felt from the beginning. Giving her a beaming smile, one filled with ‘good will’ Justin tilted his head, faux confusion of why she was so mad adding insult to injury.

“It’s time for you to go  _ quiet  _ little guillotine, come here.” Arachne drew her finger to the side in a sharp flick, as if to tell him to zip his lips. Justin wasn’t as petty as her to stomp his feet and keep going, it was clear he already won this confrontation. Still, when the hypnosis started to flood back, filling his eyes with that thick heavy purple again he sighed. He knew it was coming, there was no way she’d just let him go free, but it  _ was  _ disappointing to feel his legs move without his input to go to Arachne.

Her fan had gone up over her face for a second, her eyes closed in a ‘calm’ way that Justin knew very well. He had been in that exact state many times, needing to take a second to chew on his hatred or anger before he cracked and made a fool of himself. It didn’t take her very long to figure it out though, probably having a vast amount experience with this considering how much the other witches all hated her. Justin wasn’t ignorant to her history, her exile, but he also didn’t bother to feel any sympathy for it.

“Well, you are really in quite a state right now… I’m sure Giriko tried his best but he really doesn’t have the eye for detail these things take.” Having Arachne look over his body with such sharp invasive eyes made Justin twitch a bit, not enjoying the experience at all, especially not while he was so underclothed. Suddenly he started moving again, Arachne not even bothering to give a vocal command this time and just moving him on her own. Justin swore he was going to pass out in fear as he was brought to be on top of Arachne, sitting on her lap like a small child.

“Don’t be so scared little one, I’m your mother and I will care for you, just like my other weapons… Even if you continue to be such a problem child.” Now that he couldn’t talk anymore Arachne’s confidence was entirely back, especially because she was getting to see Justin no longer smug and fearless again. It would be infuriating if Justin wasn’t so busy noticing how Arachne’ body pressed up against his back in a way that made him want to vomit. He didn’t like this at all, he had never in his life had skin to skin contact with a witch, much less a witch as evil as she, and he had liked it that way.

“Your body is so cold… We certainly just let you freeze.” From somewhere, probably the bed behind them, Arachne pulled down a blanket and he was wrapped up in it’s somehow already warm fluff… it felt so amazingly good after he had spent over an hour chilled to the bone, without even meaning to he started to melt, relaxing into the fabric with a relieved sigh, glad to know he wasn’t going to freeze to death anymore. 

Justin didn’t realize until now just  _ how  _ cold he had gotten, his skin was burning as all the nerves started to fire back up and his very soul suddenly began to remember it was  _ frozen  _ as all the numbness died away. Shivering in his blankets he sniffled slightly at how much it hurt and how desperate he was to actually get to experience the warmth he could feel around him that hadn’t gotten past his skin yet.

The feeling of heating back up really was agonizing, it hurt so much more than he ever thought it would. Arachne didn’t seem to notice or care, instead she just started to brush her fingers through his hair, pulling out the tangles with her long nails as if she was absentmindedly caring for a child. The feeling made Justin’s stomach turn, and that almost spiked into throwing up when he felt her fingers snag on something. 

“...Your head is bleeding.” Justin whimpered as Arachne suddenly pulled the piece of stuck hair she had hit to the side with rough fingers, forcing him to realize there was gummy blood drying in his hair, the bright wet tingle of fresh bleeding still prickling around the wound. 

“My goodness… I really am going to need to talk to him about this…” Arachne sounded less annoyed then her words suggested, almost like she had been expecting this but was still disappointed. It seemed to have a lot Justin could take from it and try to make sense of… but his head hurt far too much for that. Everything hurt far too much for that. Instead he just focused on chewing through the painful warmth trying to defrost his poor body and tried to ignore everything else.

There was no chance.

Making a pathetic gasp and whimper Justin tried to turn his head away as Arachne began to poke at his head wound, presumably trying to clean it or otherwise fix it. Justin didn’t care if she was fixing it though, he was done with all of this, he didn’t want more pain. He was done with all this hurt. Trying to get up or struggle past the hypnosis he didn’t manage anything but a quiet little sob that she just smiled seeing. It was obvious she loved seeing him so pathetic and helpless… made sense for a spider whose favorite tool was a sticky web that it's prey could never struggle out of. 

Arachne got up, having his limp body flop back onto the lounge. The jarring motion made his head spin dizzyingly and had him forgetting where he was for a second. He really wanted to crawl into a corner and just roll up, hide away from all the pain and try to squeeze it all away. He couldn’t though, and when Arachne came back with shining crystalline blue pills he shrunk back. They were so delicately held in her hands, offered like a gift, telling him to take them as if he was going to get a choice. 

“There's no water right now, but I’m sure you can manage it, Death Scythe. Take them.” They were down Justin’s throat before he could even consider what they could do, the way they had caught the low light of Arachne’s room burnt into his mind as he looked up at the ceiling with tired eyes. She didn’t bother to mention what they were, probably out of spite….

Whatever came next, a gross smelling wipe of some sort rubbing down his head wound and a couple other scrapped up parts of his body, made his skin crawl and burn. At this point he had realized Arachne was taking care of him, making sure he healed properly. He’d be thankful for it if he wasn’t so disconcerted with it all. 

From this entire experience it was clear Arachne was only worried about his body, pleasantly surprised his mind hadn’t fallen apart from the hypnosis but not the slightest bit hesitant to keep using it. He could think of a million different reasons she was only interested in that part of him, but he refused to dwell on it, he refused to dwell on it, he  _ refused to dwell on it _ .

Blood started to drip down his face, his head ripping open further from how tensely he was holding himself. Arachne leaned back in surprise as she noticed it, finishing wrapping up a different wound before smacking him to stop it. He did, but not without a fair amount of annoyance. It was really tiring to be unable to react at all to anything happening. Justin wasn’t a very animated person but even he was starting to get livid at how restricting this was. 

Speaking of that… Arachne’s hypnosis was still going strong but he managed to lick his bloody lips so subconsciously that it couldn’t stop him. There was a lot of blood, so much it was already congealing and turning to gore as it dripped down into his mouth. He wondered what had smashed his head in so much, it must’ve happened when he fell but even then it was impressive. Licking the blood again he realized how hungry he was, his own copper tasting delicious on his tongue as his stomach rolled in desperation. 

“Death really raises such animals. Stop that.” The foul smelling wipe came over his face and made him whine as he was rubbed clean with some kind of antiseptic that’s fumes made his eyes burn. He also found it humorous he was being called the animal when she had Giriko on her staff, that man pretty much relied on instinct to do everything. Still, there was nothing he could do to point that out to her so he just let it go, letting her finally bandage his head so it wouldn’t completely coat him in gore again.

He hadn’t realized until now, but the pain was completely gone, a warm buzz replacing it all… those pills must’ve been painkillers… a surprising mercy from the witch. Justin really wouldn’t have expected her to bother giving a prisoner such luxuries, but he wasn’t going to complain either. They seemed stronger than he originally noticed, making his entire body go even heavier than it already was. 

“Hmm I see Giriko got you into something clean… but you're going to freeze again if we don’t get you real clothes…” Justin was already drifting off by the time she said it, exhausted by everything that had happened. Having all his wounds and bruises finally cleaned and bandaged, given painkillers that were starting to work… Justin couldn’t deny that even with all his disgust and hatred for her he wanted to just sleep here. His now very obvious concussion from eating concrete was telling him it was time to rest anyway, promising that he could heal now if he just closed his eyes and let himself relax despite it all. 

And despite his better judgement… he started to let his eyes drift close. Arachne didn’t seem to be done talking, but not to him. Justin’s mind woke up the tiniest bit when he heard another voice, old and crotchety, but not like Giriko’s was. This was a stranger, someone who’s voice had the husky tone of a decaying body. They were talking about something, Arachne seemed to be giving the man some type of command. Justin couldn’t tell what it was but somewhere in his mind he processed it as unalarming, not worth waking up for.

Sleep came without mercy, without waiting for him to decide if that was really what he wanted. A sharp smile being burnt into his mind as everything went black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was torn between doing a Justin POV or not because I usually try to keep my longer fics from one perspective the entire time to minimize confusion, but I felt having Justin and Arachne interacting alone was important for the plot and something that clearly couldn't happen if it was from Giriko's POV. Next chapter will be Giriko again though ;v;)/


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hate myself for being the type of person that makes myself sit down and finish writing a chapter until its done and then its 5am and I'm suffering because it just won't end and I want to sleep... Anyway after having this in a open tab for goddamn weeks its done, please enjoy

Giriko hadn’t slept, he had bitten through his fingers and had been shaking his leg so hard he swore it was going to pop off. His hands were fisted through his oily hair, his skin feeling grimy with the reminder he needed to shower but really couldn’t get himself to. He was worrying himself to death, he had never intended for things to go the way they had, for him to be forced to leave Justin with Arachne. He… he knew Arachne wouldn’t hurt him but her willingness to play with Justin like a doll and ignore his fear entirely had Giriko more than just nervous. 

Justin was a Death Scythe, he didn’t need to be played with gently to be o.k., but this went beyond playing or messing around. Arachne was messing around with his mind back there, reworking it however she saw fit and deciding how he would act and behave from here on out… that was horrifying. Giriko had only seen her hypnotism a few times before and it had always been in battle, having someone turn against their allies before being killed themselves… This was something entirely different.

Before this Justin seemed as if he was just asleep, under a veil of hazy obedience but he was  _ there _ , waiting annoyed under everything while being forced to obey. When they met Arachne though he had started speaking words that weren’t his own, giving promises and reassurances that he would never say, smiling where he wouldn’t smile… he was being changed, moved like a puppet and used to make everything seem ok when it clearly wasn’t. 

It wasn’t him anymore, or at least he was being forced to hide so deep inside himself while the rest of his body moved and spoke without him that Giriko wouldn’t be able to tell if he was there or not. Was Justin’s very mind being rewritten? Giving him thoughts and feelings that weren’t his own but that he suddenly felt as if they were? Or was his body just a separate entity of him now? One that did it's own thing while he was forced to go along for the ride? Giriko didn’t know. He didn’t know what was happening to Justin right now and he was  _ scared _ , he was scared of what could be happening right now, what was being done in his name, because of  _ his  _ complaint. 

It felt like a million years before Mosquito finally came by, surprised to see him just loitering in their halls with a half empty bottle of bourbon and a zombie-ish face. He had probably thought Giriko had gone to bed or something, or at the very least would be as worried as he was right now. There was a moment of weird silence between them, Mosquito chewing on something. Giriko would normally scream at him to piss off, but he had a feeling the man had something valuable for him right now. He did.

“Arachne’s finished with her work, they’re just relaxing now. You might be able to go in, but I didn’t send you.” With that Mosquito started back up, walking away before Giriko could react at all, not wanting thanks or any other possible reaction. It was a rare moment of comradery between them… one that left Giriko feeling a bit weird as he watched the old bastard turn around the corner and disappear. The feeling didn’t last long though, he had more important things to be worrying about, that he had to make a decision about.

The hallway to Arachne’s room felt daunting all of a sudden, so much longer than it actually was and filled with a dreadful and fearsome feeling… Giriko almost didn’t want to go down that way, he didn’t want to face what happened. Mosquito didn’t make any indication on whether or not what he’d find would be good or bad, there was a chance he didn’t even know himself what was going on- Giriko wouldn’t blame him.

Placing the bottle of bourbon down onto the floor he shoved his hands into his pockets, his shoulders bunching up in stress as he made his way towards the room. Every step was driving him crazy, he sort of, kind of understood how Justin must’ve been feeling the first time they went to Arachne’s room, because for some reason he was fearing his life here. Giriko wasn’t even sure why, he knew he wasn’t in danger here. Maybe he was worried he’d just have a heart attack somehow, that there was something so awful waiting for him he’d just die. 

Giriko’s breath stopped in his throat with a gross noise as he reached his arm up to knock on Arachne’s door, nowhere stupid enough to just go in without warning. It took him a second to actually get his knuckles to make contact with the old wood, his mouth tasting coppery as he went insane with the fear… he couldn’t even see, this stress was fucking crazy, he almost wanted to scold himself for being  _ so  _ hung up on this. He knew Justin for what, 4 months? 

When he finally managed to rap his fingers and create a deafening clunking noise he let out a shaky breath, refusing to let Arachne see him so hung up if she did let him in. For a second it seemed like she wouldn’t, there was no response for a good while despite the fact Giriko knew she could hear him. It had been centuries since he had made this mistake, but Giriko had gone into her room once before when she didn’t respond, thinking she was asleep. That wasn’t the case, she stared at him with a disappointment and an unbearably quiet but deadly threat to get out. If she didn’t answer, she didn’t want him there, it was as easy as that… 

Right when he was about to turn around and drink himself into oblivion, staring at his knees unblinkingly as he stayed in the same thought process he had been in all night, he heard a response. It wasn’t anything interesting, just a simple ‘come in’. Arachne knew it was him, Giriko was the only one allowed to just knock without reason, allowed to come in without an explanation or having been called upon. 

Swinging the door open he cringed at the squeaky noise the door made, far too old… he’d have to ask to fix that at some point, it was going to drive him crazy at some point, be the last straw on a bad day. Taking far too long messing with it, fiddling around with it in his nervousness he finally realized he was being weird and forced himself to turn around and face whatever was waiting for him. 

Justin’s eyes were a darker purple than they had ever been before, Giriko could see them glowing before he even fully got in the room and it made a dagger burst through his heart and twist inside. He didn’t know what to say, what had Arachne done? Why did it look so much worse? Going deeper inside he closed the door behind him with shaking hands, his heart catching in his throat when he realized Justin had changed clothes…

The new outfit Arachne had put him in was presumably just to stop him from being naked and running around in nothing but Giriko’s shirt, but it was something Giriko  _ knew  _ the scythe would tear apart in rage if he could. It was mostly normal, soft white button up and black pinafore… but then there was a spider necklace where his cross would’ve been.  _ Should’ve been _ a horrible part of Giriko’s mind whispered. Of course Justin didn’t look upset about it though, he had a seductive smile peeling up his lips, but anyone with half a brain would know that wasn’t Justin. 

“Giriko you’ve come back earlier than I expected…” Arachne took her time addressing him, finishing a long drag on her cigarette before even looking his way. Something must’ve pissed her off for her to be smoking, annoyed but not letting it get to her head and fester, just letting it out in a slow plume of smoke. He wondered if Justin had actually managed to give her trouble… that was hard to imagine but considering how impossibly annoying Justin could be there was a chance he was the cause of it. 

Justin was propped on Arachne’s leg, sitting on her lap like a prized pet. They had been facing each other, Justin’s arms around her neck and now the scythe was bent around so he could be staring into Giriko with those sadistic and playful eyes. There was so much emotion in them now, Giriko wondered if any of it was real. 

“Well I assume you want to get right to it then… I looked over Justin and for a Death Scythe I expected  _ far  _ more wear and tear. He’s really perfect for display though.” Arachne forced Justin to look back at her, making his head tilt down so he could look her in the eyes. He was a bit taller than her in this position, making the angle the slightest bit awkward. Giriko was actually kind of uncomfortable watching… What on earth were they doing in here? All the ideas of what it could be made his face start to burn.

“I know that you wouldn’t want that though… and I’m feeling very charitable… so I’ll let you keep him.” It was a really fucking weird thing to say, and it made Giriko feel the slightest bit sick, but he was not going to risk arguing about this. He stood ramrod straight, his fists clenching and unclenching as he chewed on all his hatred for this situation. Arachne clearly noticed, but she didn’t say anything. 

“However, he was extremely damaged coming to me, covered in wounds from your fight that were entirely untreated and freezing to death… I asked you to take care of him. If he ends up dying then who knows if I could ever find a replacement.” Giriko’s stomach hurt hearing her talk about Justin as a collection object, a plain weapon rather than a demon weapon that had thoughts and feelings. He fucking knew Justin ate witches and probably didn’t deserve their sympathy… but still. Arachne wasn’t supposed to see her own children this way…

Part of him was hoping that all of this was just because Arachne knew Justin would be incredibly violent if he wasn’t under hypnosis… but that was feeling like denial at this point. She was far too into his rare weapon form to just be worried about making sure he didn’t draw blood. 

“I didn’t notice… there was a lot going on but I’ll pay more attention now.” Now that he was actually looking at Justin, trying to ignore the kid’s purple eyes, he could see bandages sporadically placed on his arms and legs, a big one on one side of his forehead that Giriko could tell went back into his hair. How beaten up was Justin? How the hell had he not noticed? He knew he had been having a hard time looking away from Justin’s hauntingly blank expressions but he hadn’t thought he was this oblivious. 

“But uh, wasn’t the point of this so he could do it himself or tell me?” Giriko was talking more carefully and slower than he ever had before in his life, really considering the shit he said trying to make sure shit didn’t get even  _ worse  _ here. 

“Yes, don’t worry he can move and speak on his own now…” As if to prove her point Arachne looked over to Justin moving her cigarette towards him. Giriko was expecting the scythe to dodge, for this to prove he could protect himself from danger now. That wasn’t what happened. Justin opened his mouth and let Arachne stub it out on his tongue, not even flinching as she ground the hot ash in and then carelessly dropped it into his mouth… having the scythe swallow it for her. The way Justin licked his lips as the toxic thing started to head down into his stomach made the world feel like it had been turned on its head. Giriko had tensed up so much he couldn’t breathe, in so much shock he wasn’t thinking of anything when his eyes met Justin’s royal purple. 

This wasn’t Justin. Not even close. 

“You seem worried, isn’t this what you were looking for?” Arachne knew fucking damn well it wasn’t, or if she truly didn’t then Giriko was fucking insulted in who she apparently thought he was. He didn’t even know how to respond to this, what he could possibly say. Arachne fucking knew better than this, she was far more respectable then this, what the hell did she hate about Justin so much to be doing this horrible bullshit. 

Before he could intake the breath it would take to respond Justin was getting up, making Giriko stumble back. He was threatened by the scythe, but not in fear of being attacked, he was just scared of what he’d do. He didn’t want to see Justin like this, and he was pretty certain Justin wouldn’t want anyone seeing him like this… He barely knew the brat and he was sure for a zealot like him this was a worst case scenario. 

Giriko had never before hated the color purple, but he was fucking disgusted seeing it shining in Justin’s eyes as they moved closer. He wanted to vomit, he wanted to beat Justin unconscious, to try desperately to hit the horrible color right out of him. 

“I was waiting for you to come back, what took you so long?” Justin’s voice was seductive, teasing, but the words that presumably came from Justin himself past all that bullshit fucking knocked the wind out of him. A desperate question as to why he had left behind to become  _ this _ . The guilt clogging Giriko’s veins was unreal, he didn’t know how the hell to even start to handle it. 

“Arachne what the fuck is this!?” It finally burst out of him, unable to be held back anymore despite the fact he knew speaking back to Arachne like this was a bad idea. Arachne herself looked surprised by his outburst, used to his screaming but not used to it being directed at  _ her _ . She didn’t get a chance to react to it before Justin did.

“Don’t ignore me, I was talking.” Justin’s hands were fisted on his shirt, holding on desperately and asking for attention. There was probably more to that, something he should’ve realized, but he was too fucking angry to think about this rationally. If it was something truly important he could make it up to Justin later, once this bullcrap had been dealt with. 

“I’m not fucking ignoring you! I can’t ignore you when you’re acting like this! Aren’t you fucking upset in there!?” It was hard to tell what Justin was thinking. Obviously the brat still wasn’t in control of what he could say or do, so it wasn’t like Giriko could get any real worthwhile messages from him. Any communication between them was covered in this sticky awful haze that made Giriko’s soul ache.

“Giriko calm down. What is making you act out so much?” Arachne was being surprisingly calm considering Giriko had just completely lost it and disrespected her, but he didn’t dare question that part. He held Justin’s face in warm hands, keeping him still and looking into his blank purple eyes. He was so pathetic… they both were right now. Giriko was the one that felt like the real moron though.

“I want him to be normal! To be himself!” Justin’s face didn’t react at all to that, the words were painfully romantic and would haunt Giriko forever but the scythe didn’t even blink at them… Giriko had to wonder if he was even there anymore, if he was just reading too far into the weird things this doll of Justin did because he was desperate to believe the scythe was still here. 

“You want someone who hates you?” It burnt, Giriko’s heart dropped to the floor as she said that. Part of him supposed this was Arachne trying to be nice, making Justin act submissive and sexual so he could feel as if the scythe was in love with him… but that wasn’t what he wanted at all. Giriko didn’t need to know Justin anymore than he already did to know there was no way that was how Justin acted when he was in love anyway. The brat was fucking  _ obsessed  _ with Lord Death and serving him and didn’t stoop to that level even for the pseudo god. 

“If that’s how this is gonna go… I mean I’m kinda expecting it anyway.” The words felt poisonous on his tongue, disgusting and far too sappy for him, especially in reference to someone who probably didn’t like him. 

“You’ve certainly become sentimental in the time I’ve been gone Giriko, I wouldn’t have thought all that time would soften your edges but apparently it has.” as much as Giriko hated to admit, 800 years was a long fucking time. He had memories of his time before it started, moments burnt into his brain… but only moments. Those alone weren’t enough for him to remember what his personality was back then, how he would’ve reacted to things like this. Arachne probably would know better than him about that… they hadn’t talked in so unbearably long. 

“I’m still fucking livid where it matters, this is just a brat though Arachne! Look at him, he's a goddamn baby!” Grabbing Justin’s face in a bruising grip he forced the kid’s neck to crane to the side so Arachne could look at him head on. She didn’t look amused by the show, annoyed that Giriko was being so finicky about this. Giriko hated that he was just as annoyed as she was, both at himself for caring this much and at Arachne for insistently being so creepy. He kept Justin’s head there for a while until he got a pained noise from the poor bastard and flinched back in fear that he had twisted the kid’s neck further than was safe. 

Arachne didn’t respond for a bit, giving a heavy sigh and leaning against one of her hands. There seemed to be a lot she was considering right now, a lot Giriko probably didn’t want to know… some of it was probably distaste and anger for him as well, surely disappointed in him for being so demanding. It was hard to watch, to stay silent and not just give up under the pressure of this silence. For a second he thought he was going to cave and say he didn’t fucking care anymore and that she could do what she wanted… but then Justin shifted besides him, moving closer and hiding his face in Giriko’s shoulder. It was fucking unfairly cute and really worked amazingly at firing his guilt right back up.

“Yes he’s certainly good at filling that role, and I suppose he is truly young… but I’m wondering if you have forgotten what it takes to become a Death Scythe Giriko.” Grimacing Giriko looked away, he fucking knew, he knew what Justin had to have done to be where he was in the academy… he knew and he was fucking disgusted by it. The kid was fucking gross undoubtedly, but did that really make turning him into… into this, ok? Looking down he gave a weird strained noise at the purple eyes staring at him with a faux love and wet slightly parted lips that fucking begged to be kissed. 

“Really, what do you even want here? Surely you haven’t become so dull these years to not realize he will just try to kill everyone here if we undo the hypnotism.” Giriko did know that, he did and as much as he wanted Justin back he… well… he shamefully didn’t want Justin  _ completely  _ back. He wanted a defenseless Justin, him, but not able to be violent and deadly. 

His opinions on Giriko and Arachnophobia didn’t matter, he could be cursing them out the whole time and Giriko wouldn’t mind, he’d still be fun to argue with… but even Giriko knew having him able to swipe his blades around was a bad idea… they just needed to declaw him though, not reform him. Maybe break his ankles or something, that would leave him unable to do much at all without all this weirdness… 

“You can have him move and talk fine with being able to run or attack, he’s doing that right now… is it really fucking impossible to have him normal while still unable to fight? Even if we’re not using hypnosis there has to be a million different ways to cripple him or whatever.” Justin made a whine there but Giriko ignored it, instead grabbing the back of Justin’s head and shoving the brat’s face into his chest so he couldn’t make any kind of commentary here. It was time for him to be  _ quiet,  _ he was being a fucking dumbass not realizing that.

Arachne stayed quiet for a long time, presumably swishing that idea around and deciding if she wanted to take him up on that. At this point Giriko knew he wasn’t doing a good job trying to make this seem like it was something for the good of all of them like he originally planned and really it was completely obvious this was all entirely for selfish reasons. There was a good chance Arachne wasn’t going to take kindly to that, annoyed that he was getting distracted with something so invaluable to their mission. 

“Justin, come here.” Giriko’s entire body went stiff but he obediently let go to let the kid scamper back to her, not hesitant at all while in this state and seemingly completely happy to be called. It felt weird and Giriko was honestly terrified about what was going to happen that Arachne wasn’t interested in telling him about beforehand. It was clear she wasn’t telling him on purpose, she had lost her patience, which Giriko didn’t blame her for, but he was still horrified. 

Arachne had Justin sit besides her again and pet back some of his hair, the scythe smiled warmly and as she caressed his face he opened his mouth to suck on her thumb. He was so weirdly comfortable with touch like this… it was all sorts of gross to watch… Giriko didn’t dare to even breathe to interrupt this though, he knew he was on thin ice. When Arachne moved to meet her lips to Justin’s though, her tongue clearly going into the scythe’s mouth Giriko couldn’t manage to stop himself from making a pained choking noise. Arachne looked over at him from the corner of her eye.

“Yes I thought so, Giriko you’ve fallen in love with this child, haven’t you?” Giriko froze, before this he could pass this off as Justin being entertaining or being sexually attractive… but Arachne just fucking outed him, pointing out something he didn’t even want to look at. Justin didn’t really have any kind of visible reaction to it though, his mouth still open, his head still tilted back as he looked at Giriko with curious eyes, his hands on his knees. He looked so fucking dumb and annoyingly cute. Giriko could only imagine what he was thinking inside of there… he could visualize Justin’s disgusted face and upturned nose, saying something about how Giriko wasn’t even worthy of fantasizing about him or something. 

“Hmm… what should we do about that? Surely you know that's its own fair share of dangerous… don’t you?” Swallowing thickly he nodded in affirmation, unsure of what else he could say right now. Arachne sighed, upset he wasn’t even trying to deny it. Giriko always had a hard time lying to Arachne though, otherwise he probably would’ve. He really didn’t want to deal with Justin knowing that but it was far too late now. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t all there right now… just for this one moment. 

“I have to say I don’t really understand what you see in him, he was quite a pain last night… he’s visually cute and very rare but at what cost? Lord Death must be fairly annoyed having to deal with him.” Giriko was surprised at how much he disliked people other than himself insulting Justin… when did he become this fucking whipped? Justin had been clinging and relying on him pretty desperately the past two or so days, but he wasn’t really there, and before that he was a murderous little bitch. There was something disgustingly awful about the kid, Arachne was right wondering at the cost of dealing with him normally… he was way too good at making himself seem innocent and lovely when he really fucking wasn’t.

“Yeah probably.” Arachne smiled at that, happy with his agreement. Still Giriko’s eyes were focused on Arachne’s fingers stroking Justin’s cheek, her other hand holding onto one of his thighs, keeping the kid’s body facing hers. God did he want to be the one touching Justin like that, he fucking wanted the brat to be his, he didn’t even care anymore if Justin was stuck like this forever, it was still his body, his soul. He was getting impatient, antsy watching this. Arachne could tell and gave a thoughtful hum.

“Normally I wouldn’t allow this… and I’m still tempted not to.” Giriko’s heart fell to hell, unbelievably upset to be taunted like this and then given nothing. He wanted to fucking assault Justin right now, fuck him into his mattress even though he knew he couldn’t get permission from the scythe anymore. He hated watching this, he hated how much he wanted this. He was all but drooling, maybe he even was drooling… it wouldn’t surprise him. Arachne really knew how to drive him absolutely insane.

“However since you did such a good job these past 800 years, I suppose it wouldn’t be  _ too  _ harmful… but if it becomes that way he’s just going to go into my collection, we’ve worked too hard to have him get in our way. Plus I know you Giriko, you’d never forgive yourself for letting all that pain go to waste.” Giriko actually agreed with that, so as horrifying as the idea of Justin being frozen in silk strands and kept among objects that had caught Arachne’s interest  _ was _ , it seemed fair enough. He nodded in a firm acceptance of the lax conditions, not even really feeling like he was being given any kind of rules anyway. Arachne sighed again, fully relenting to this idea now.

“Alright Justin… you can wake up again, but if you are anything but good, know you’ll never move again.” Justin was still under the weird hypnosis, but even despite that he seemed to shake in fear. Giriko didn’t blame him, he was certain he’d have a similar reaction. The slightest bit of silk came out of Arachne’s soul, the purple in his eyes fading as she traded out the hypnosis and instead looped the silk around his limbs, tying them together. Justin, at least in a physical aspect, no longer able to disobey Arachne’s soul’s wishes for him. 

When she was done she pushed him roughly off the lounge, letting him go crashing to the marble floors with a rough groan. Justin took a second to hold his head, soothing it after the impact or perhaps after the effects of the hypnosis faded. Giriko wanted to go over there and soothe the scythe, to get him back on his feet so they could get out of here before Arachne changed her mind or he could do something stupid. Luckily Justin seemed to be on the same page as him and got up to his feet slowly, falling back down a couple of times, tripping and having a horrible time just trying to move like this. 

When he started to make a gagging noise, drooling and giving all the signs he was about to vomit Giriko actually did run over there. If Justin straight up threw up on Arachne’s floor fucking nothing good would happen. Justin leaned on his shoulder with a heavy groan as he helped the scythe up, nowhere near ready to talk as he dealt with all of this… Giriko wondered what it felt like to have your soul wrapped up with a witch’s thread, it probably felt all sorts of wrong.

As Justin tripped and limped out Giriko caught a glimpse of his eyes, baby blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be my last fic update before goretober starts, I mightttt do something depending on some stuff but as of right now please look forward to some bloody, fluffy, dark and light fics in the next month! <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> updating for the 666 hit mark ayyyy, I mean it just happened to work out that way but hell yeah.

Completely silently, Justin pushed ahead of him to get into the room, going straight to Giriko’s bed to hide under the covers. It’d be annoying but Giriko was actually feeling patient for once, understanding the scythe’s upset after that fucking mess. Although… there was one thing left he had to ask before completely leaving Justin to do his thing. 

“Hey kid… don’t you want to throw up first?” Justin peeked out of the blankets, giving Giriko a confused look, not understanding why on earth he would  _ want  _ to throw up. Giving a tired sigh Giriko peeled more of the blankets off so he could actually see the scythe instead of just eerie glowing eyes shining from the darkness of his stupid cocoon.

“You don’t want to finish digesting a cigarette do you?” The red that came over Justin’s face, somewhere between outraged and humiliated made Giriko the slightest bit nervous. Whatever the kid decided to do Giriko wasn’t going to care, but he figured he’d at least bring it up considering he wasn’t exactly sure  _ how _ toxic that was. Probably not much considering how insistent Arachne was on not killing Justin, it’d be pretty weird if after that rant she killed Justin herself from negligence. 

Still, Justin didn’t seem like he was going to do that, presumably too exhausted from whatever night he had to want to get up and fucking expunge his guts into porcelain. Instead, fucking punching Giriko in the stomach, he snuck his hand out to pull firmly on the edge of Giriko’s shirt, asking to be held while he slept. Giriko had been pretty certain Arachne was going to turn out to be right and Justin was going to hate him, but that didn’t seem to be the case… He hated how excited that made him. 

Giriko got in besides Justin without even a moment's hesitation, glad to finally be lying down. He was fucking exhausted himself from last night’s pacing and banging his head against the wall in self loathing… It took them a second to get comfortable and figure things out but when Justin immediately moved to cuddle into Giriko’s chest, not having any qualms about invading Giriko’s space, Giriko figured he could do whatever he wanted… after all this was permission, wasn’t it?

Wrapping his body tightly around the scythe’s, hiding him from anything that might try to hurt him here, Giriko smiled at the little noise Justin made, quiet nonsense that cared the tone of praise and thankfulness. Well, at least he knew that was what Justin was looking for, it was more than hard to tell considering Justin didn’t feel the need to audibly say anything and just expected Giriko to figure everything out from movements and expressions… little brat. 

Justin fell asleep far faster than he did, apparently content in Giriko’s arms, relaxing now that there was a barrier between him and everyone else. It was far too fucking cute, it made Giriko’s heart swell enough that it hurt. Whatever happened to Justin last night had to have been awful, there was just no denying it at this point. His head was getting poked and prodded around with, there was no way that was pleasant… so it made sense he was asleep now, relieved for it to finally be over. Giriko gave a tired brush of lips to the side of Justin’s head, already having relented to the fact that he was fucked and feeling confident that the scythe was asleep and would never know. 

It was amazing how much better it felt to be tangled up with Justin now that the kid could move on his own and cuddle back, holding onto him with little fists and shaking the slightest bit even in his sleep… still scared and looking to Giriko for safety. He was so helpless up against Arachne’s control, his power and elegance as a Death Scythe rather cruelly stripped away… it was fucking cute though. It was _unbearably _cute. Justin was adorable when he was scared and not being an insufferable asshole all cocky and deranged by Lord Death’s bullcrap.

Humming against the scythe’s forehead Giriko tried to shame himself into calming down and hate himself for being  _ overjoyed _ he had gotten exactly what he wanted here. He couldn’t though, Justin was so small and warm in his arms, heavy with sleep and curling into him, relaxing more and more with every second. This was Justin without hypnosis, which meant Justin  _ liked  _ him. Drooling a gross puddle because he was so deep asleep, feeling  _ safe  _ with Giriko’s protective grasp.

Maybe Arachne wasn’t wrong thinking of this as a present, Giriko was certainly feeling as if he got a gift from her right now. After all, there was no way on Earth he would’ve gotten Justin vulnerable in his bed like this if it weren’t for her interference. Actually he’d be  _ dead  _ living inside the brat’s murderous carnivorous soul if it weren’t for her interference. It was truly amazing what she could pull off so effortlessly. 

Really thinking about it, Giriko was in disbelief being here. This past year had been more than just a turning point from the previous 800 years, the thrill of it all, especially now that he didn’t have to worry about Justin getting turned into some kind of weird doll… it was making it hard for him to sleep. He was tired undoubtedly, he had spent all last night up in stress, but right now his leg was twitching with overwhelment. 

It was honestly annoying. 

There was nothing really for him to do right now and even if there was he was too tired and also just busy watching over Justin because even though he was fairly certain everything was fine now, who knew what was going on with the poor brat’s head. Rolling over a bit he pulled Justin up with him, letting the scythe fall onto his chest with a cute little whine before curling back in. It was surprising how clingy Justin was… or would be if it weren’t for everything else. He was still scared as shit after all… 

Now the fact he trusted  _ Giriko _ to make the scary things here less scary, that was another can of worms. 

It  _ almost  _ made Giriko feel guilty because he wasn’t certainly wasn’t planning on stopping anything anyone was doing here… Just because he was willing to put the effort in to push Justin out of the way so he wouldn’t get torn apart for being Lord Death’s cockwarmer didn’t mean he was interested in changing anything about how they did things. Justin had to know that though, there was no way he was looking for anything but safety… or Giriko at least hoped the kid knew that, otherwise there was going to be a hell of a disappointment waiting for him. 

Looking back down at Justin Giriko couldn’t help but have a tired smile stretch up his face… this kid was exhausting and stupid and bloodthirsty… he was everything awful in this world, everything Giriko had to bite down on these 800 years and just deal with. Now that he  _ didn’t _ have to just deal with it in silence, and now that Arachne was back it was a lot less unbearable. 

In fact… now it was almost enjoyable, getting to finally yell and fight with someone about what he had to just silently accept for so long. Justin’s loss being a fucking moron parroting Lord Death’s teachings was really Giriko’s gain, giving him an amazing outlet for his centuries of frusteration. Justin wasn’t someone who would change their mind even if Giriko tried to explain why this was all bullshit, but honestly that was better. Giriko wanted someone who would listen and scoff at his disdain for these fucking bullshit rules the world had decided to follow, he wanted that haughty superiority to get mad at.

God did Giriko miss getting explosively mad and shit talking Death all these years and Justin really just gave him permission constantly to go on about it just by existing. Tomorrow the brat would be up thinking and acting how he used to be… or at least miles closer than he had been the past few days under Arachne’s hypnosis… working as the world’s best stress relief to let him yell about his lifetimes of agony over this shit. 

All of that was certainly worth just holding the kid in tight arms so he’d feel safe from the ‘monstrous witch’ upstairs. Really, even though he wasn’t the one trying to convince Justin that Arachne would try to fucking eat his toes or some childish bullshit if he didn’t keep his guard up he almost felt like he was taking advantage of Justin’s fear here. There really wasn’t anything to be  _ this  _ scared of, sure Arachne was capable of some damage but her biggest threat was keeping Justin in her collection, it really wouldn’t be that huge of a deal for Justin to be kept safe in one of her rooms. 

It’d be boring for sure, but it wasn’t worth this shaking like a leaf Justin had been doing as he fell asleep. Hell, Arachne had done that to  _ herself _ for 800 years, waiting in that golem for what must’ve felt like forever. It couldn’t be that bad if she was willing to sit around like that. Giriko was at least going to tell himself that- he didn’t want to think of Arachne  _ or  _ Justin having to sit through the alternative.

Still even if it was fine, Giriko was going to do his best to make sure that wouldn’t end up being the case, because damn it would be far more awkward to have to intentionally go through Arachne’s vast collections just to talk (if they even could)… and it’d make his desperation to play with the brat more apparent than he was okay with. Right now felt like it had the ability to be perfect, he just needed Justin to wake up again and see what he was like now, what he was thinking…

It made sense that Justin wasn’t in the mood to talk or even be awake after all of that, it made sense and honestly Giriko thought he was going to be the same way… but the curiosity here was insistent on keeping him up all night long with questions like what was Justin thinking? How did he feel about Giriko now? They were cuddling so it had to be positive, right? But if it was, was it as interested as Giriko was or was Justin just desperate for anyone to protect him while he was so vulnerable?

Groaning in dissatisfaction at his mind’s sudden anxiety Giriko buried his face into the top of Justin’s curly blonde hair, trying to drown himself in the scythe’s scent and finally fall asleep. It took a minute and Justin wiggling up to rest their cheeks adorably together so they could get right up chest to chest… but then he finally began to just enjoy the warmth and doze off into a soft sleep by the other's side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> moreeee pointless cuddling, this is just one long cuddle fic, I've fooled ya all huh?


End file.
